The  Girl  with 
Two  5  elves 

F.  H.  Costello 


THE  GIRL  WITH  TWO  SELVES 


THE  GIRL 
WITH  TWO  SELVES 


BY 

F.  H.  COSTELLO 

AUTHOR   OF   MASTER   ARDICK:  BUCCANEER, 

AND 
THE   TWO  ON    GALLEY   ISLAND 


CHICAGO 

A.  C.  McCLURG  &  CO. 
1913 


COPYRIGHT 

A.  C  McCLURG  &  CO. 
1913 


Published  April,  1913 


PRESS  0* 

THE  VAIL-BALLOU  Co. 

BINGHAMTON,    N.    Y. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I  HAMIL  LEARNS  THAT  HE  Is  MARRIED  ....      i 

II    A  BUSINESS  ARRANGEMENT 17 

III  CONFIDENCES 31 

IV  BESS 47 

V    DISTURBING  POSSIBILITIES 63 

VI    MORE  KNIGHT-ERRANTRY 79 

VII    DISCONCERTING  DISCLOSURES 96 

VIII    LE  BIJOU 113 

IX    WHO  Is  THE  USURPER? 131 

X    A  POSTPONED  MARRIAGE  PROMISE 142 

XI    A  CONCORD  OF  SWEET  SOUNDS 157 

XII    ONE  OF  EVE'S  DAUGHTERS 176 

XIII  DAVID  BAUM 191 

XIV  AL  FRESCO 201 

XV    CAST  AWAY 215 

XVI    ALTER  EGO 230 

XVII    WAGER  OF  BATTLE 240 

XVIII    A  NEW  PHASE 260 

XIX    HAMIL'S  PROGNOSIS 276 

XX    IN  THE  DEEP  WOODS 288 

XXI    IF  NOT  EDITH — ? 299 

XXII    THE  SILENT  COMBAT 310 

XXIII    VICTORY! 323 


21347-16 


THE  GIRL  WITH  TWO 
SELVES 

CHAPTER  I 

HAMIL  LEARNS  THAT  HE  IS  MARRIED 

HAMIL  observed  Nature  rather  than 
studied  her.  Just  now  he  could  sat- 
isfy himself  with  all  that  the  river 
and  the  starred  sky  had  to  offer,  and  still  give 
the  most  of  his  time  to  the  tantalizing  sug- 
gestion of  human  mystery  that  had  only  re- 
cently been  presented  to  him.  He  was  calm 
and  unhurried  about  it;  for,  in  the  first  place, 
there  was  nothing  that  he  could  see  requiring 
haste;  and  then  the  hour  and  the  surround- 
ings stood  for  a  grave  and  leisurely  delibera- 
tion that  it  would  have  seemed  almost  inde- 
corous to  refuse.  He  was  a  young  and 
vigorous  American;  but  books  and  sentiment 
had  created  a  deep  background  for  him,  so 
that  he  felt  himself  continuous  with  this  an- 
1  I 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


cient  past,  even  though  he  saw  it  in  little, 
as  one  sees  through  the  big  end  of  a  spyglass. 

The  steamer  was  going  down  the  Nile  with 
the  stars  bringing  out  vaguely  one  bank  or 
the  other,  making  barely  visible  the  specters 
of  trees  and  the  exaggerated  sweep  of  shin- 
ing water,  and  intensifying  the  feeling  that 
there  was  no  human  life  anywhere  about  but 
his  own — the  rest  slept  with  the  mummies 
of  the  tombs,  or  under  the  rubbish-heaps  of 
the  vanished  cities. 

To  be  sure,  there  was  wild  life  enough,  but 
this,  instead  of  filling  the  void,  emphasized 
it.  Man  seemed  to  have  dropped  out  of  the 
scheme  of  creation,  leaving  this  flat,  silent 
world  once  again  to  the  primitive  creatures. 
The  invisible  marsh  spots  gave  out  bird-cries 
and  weird  sounds ;  unknown  things  of  weight 
flopped  or  splashed  from  mud  banks;  and 
often  a  little  black  island,  that  meant  the  back 
of  a  hippopotamus,  broke  clear  from  the 
water,  slipped  along,  for  a  minute  or  two  in 
the  swift  current,  and  then  leisurely  vanished. 
Or  a  crocodile,  like  a  floating  tree,  would 

2 


Hamil  Learns  That  He  Is  Married 

come  into  the  feeble  near-light,  and  finally 
drop  back  to  the  deeps,  leaving  a  fleeting  bit 
of  pale  radiance  upon  the  disturbed  surface. 
Hamil  felt  all  this  rather  than  saw  it,  and  in 
the  cutting  off  of  the  world  outside  he  had  the 
keener  thought  for  the  interesting  corner  of 
the  little  world  at  hand. 

The  party  that  excited  his  curiosity  Had 
come  aboard  just  at  dark,  and  from  then  till 
now  had  kept  away  from  the  other  passen- 
gers. Not  that  there  was  anything  strange 
in  this  inclination  considered  by  itself,  for  of 
course  many  rather  ordinary  reasons  might  ac- 
count for  their  aloofness;  the  odd  part,  which 
was  puzzling  and  interesting  Hamil,  was 
that  the  elderly  man  who  led  the  party  seemed 
to  be  devoting  all  his  time  and  a  marked  so- 
licitude to  a  particular  girl. 

She  did  not  appear  to  be  more  than  twenty. 
She  was  oddly  beautiful,  with  yellow-brown 
hair  and  a  fair  skin,  though  eyebrows  and 
lashes  were  both  distinctly  black.  The  eyes 
themselves  were  gray.  She  was  rather  tall, 
somewhat  slight,  and  in  the  few  movements 

3 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


that  Hamil  saw,  was  noticeably  graceful. 
Her  dress  was  nothing  out  of  the  ordinary 
for  travelers,  and  might  easily  indicate  wealth, 
as  it  certainly  did  good  taste. 

Briefly,  in  these  mere  general  and  outward 
matters,  there  was  nothing  that  accounted  for 
the  man's  pains  in  keeping  her  so  carefully 
by  herself.  For  her  part,  she  seemed  a  bit 
grave,  and  before  the  swift  nightfall  Hamil, 
getting  a  good  long-range  view  of  her  face, 
had  noticed  that  once  or  twice  she  puckered 
her  odd,  dark  brows,  and  seemed  vexed.  On 
one  of  these  occasions  the  man  had  bent  over 
her  and  said  something,  at  which  she  had 
smiled.  Yet  it  struck  Hamil  that  she  did  this 
less  from  satisfaction  at  what  had  been  said 
than  a  desire  to  please.  By  this  time  the 
watcher  had  guessed  that  they  were  father  and 
daughter. 

The  man  was  around  sixty,  rather  short, 
solid  in  body,  with  reddish-gray  hair  and 
a  snow-white  mustache.  His  features  were 
regular,  his  air  was  brisk  and  energetic,  and 
there  was  about  him  a  general  suggestion  of 

4 


Hamil  Learns  That  He  Is  Married 

a  go-ahead,  practical  business  man.  It  was 
another  fairly  safe  guess  that  he  was  an  Amer- 
ican. He  possessed  a  well-dressed  appear- 
ance and  showed  no  sign  of  soon  passing  into 
the  easy  period  of  the  "slippered  pantaloon." 

There  were  others  in  the  party,  and  all  were 
included  in  Hamil's  little  study.  One  was  a 
squat,  dark,  plainly  dressed  man  who  always 
kept  near  the  older  gentleman,  and  was  soon 
placed  as  his  valet.  Next  to  him  sat  a  tall, 
angular,  elderly  woman  of  strong  frame  and 
large  features,  who  was  dressed  comfortably 
and  neatly,  but  without  much  regard  to  fash- 
ion. Evidently  she  was  a  sort  of  superior 
servant;  but  she  appeared  to  take  more  than 
a  mere  perfunctory  interest  in  what  was 
mainly  her  business,  which  was  to  assist  the 
father  in  his  oversight  of  the  peculiar  young 
lady. 

The  last  person  in  the  group  looked  strik- 
ingly like  the  elderly  man.  She  was  a  girl  of 
sixteen,  to  eighteen,  rather  short,  but  plump, 
decidedly  pretty,  and  had  a  good  deal  of 
color.  Her  mass  of  hair  was  dark  auburn, 

$ 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


and  her  wide-awake  eyes  were  blue.  Her  fa- 
ther (that  the  old  man  was  her  father  might 
be  taken  as  a  matter  of  course)  called  her 
"Bess,"  while  she  oftener  than  otherwise  ad- 
dressed him  as  "Major." 

Also  in  the  common-place  matter  of  names 
there  was  something  peculiar  and  uncommon 
when  it  came  to  the  "mystery  girl" — so  Hamil 
had  mentally  catalogued  her.  Sometimes 
the  man,  and  sometimes  the  young  girl,  called 
her  "Carmen";  but  one  might  gather  that 
this  was  a  slip  of  the  tongue,  for  the  speaker 
would  immediately  correct  the  word,  and  sub- 
stitute "Edith."  At  such  times  she  appeared 
slightly  vexed ;  but  as  they  seemed  sorry,  she 
manifestly  became  pacified. 

Hamil  now  thought  that  he  had  solved  the 
little  mystery.  The  girl  who  was  the  heart  of 
it  was  not  wholly  sane,  though  probably  her 
trouble  did  not  extend  beyond  some  form  of 
mild  hallucination.  Yet  there  was  that  in 
her  manner  which  to  a  degree  upset  this  the- 
ory. She  had  none  of  the  restlessness,  and 
the  discursiveness  in  her  talk  that  Hamil  had 

6 


Hamil  Learns  That  He  Is  Married 

always  observed  in  such  unbalanced  people 
as  had  come  under  his  notice.  On  the  con- 
trary, she  was  quiet,  not  fidgeting,  nor  fuss- 
ing, and  what  he  had  thus  far  heard  her  say 
was  not  only  rational  but  relevant;  she  seemed 
to  keep  the  trend  of  the  talk,  and  did  not  her- 
self break  suddenly  and  jerkily  away  from  it. 

On  the  whole,  though,  his  theory  appeared 
to  be  sustained ;  but  there  remained  a  sufficient 
doubt  to  keep  the  whole  thing  tantalizingly  in- 
teresting. 

By  this  time  he  was  tired  of  his  chair,  and 
decided  to  take  a  few  turns  around  the  deck. 
Hands  in  coat  pockets,  he  started.  In  one  of 
the  turns,  as  he  drew  rather  near  the  party, 
the  younger  girl  moved  her  chair  and  started 
to  rise. 

"OH,  Car— Edith!"  she  suddenly  ex- 
claimed, still  with  the  queer  confusion  of 
name.  "Did  I  hit  your  arm?  I  made  you 
drop  something,  didn't  I?" 

There  was  already  a  little  cry  of  dismay. 

"Yes,  yes !  It  was  one  of  my  rings ;  I  had 
it  in  my  hand.  It  was  one  that  my  husband 

7 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


gave  me — the  rose  diamond."  Her  distress 
was  poignant.  "Oh,  I  mustn't  lose  it!  Get 
a  lantern,  somebody." 

The  old  gentleman  had  already  lighted  a 
match. 

"Look  with  this,  Bess,  till  I  can  get  a  lan- 
tern." 

But  where  he  stood  Hamil  got  a  slant  of 
light  from  one  of  the  ship's  suspended  lan- 
terns. It  brought  out,  under  Bessie's  aban- 
'doned  chair,  a  tiny  sparkle.  He  advanced 
and  picked  up  the  ring. 

The  owner  by  this  time  was  stooping  and 
peering  about.  She  saw  his  movement,  how- 
ever, and  looked  toward  him. 

"Here  it  is,"  he  said  with  a  smile. 

The  girl  cried  out  joyfully,  and  put  out  her 
hand  for  it.  At  that  moment  the  old  gentle- 
man returned  with  a  lantern. 

Hamil  was  about  to  withdraw,  but  the  girl 
halted  him  by  sweetly  thanking  him,  and  he 
stopped  to  return  the  usual  polite  phrases. 
He  had  lifted  his  cap,  and  the  lantern  light 
now  struck  fairly  upon  his  face. 

8 


Hamil  Learns  That  He  Is  Married 

As  the  girl  got  this  first  distinct  look  at 
him,  an  expression  of  surprise  overspread  her 
countenance  as  if  she  were  reminded  of  some- 
thing, or  somebody  familiar.  Then  a  dash 
of  excited  color  came  into  her  cheeks,  and  the 
hand  holding  the  ring  dropped  to  her  side. 
She  stared  wild-eyed  and  strangely  into  his 
face. 

The  young  man,  himself  taken  by  surprise, 
for  the  instant  stared  back.  Suddenly  Bess 
pushed  by  him. 

"What  is  it,  sister?"  There  was  a  note  of 
alarm  in  her  voice.  "Why  do  you  look  at  this 
gentleman  so?  Oh,  Papa!  Here — quick;  I 
don't  know — " 

But  a  long,  slender  white  hand,  warm  and 
virile,  forced  its  way  past  the  agitated  younger 
girl,  and  closed  with  nervous  eagerness  on 
Hamil's  wrist. 

"Jack!  Oh,  Jack,  I  can't  be  wrong! — It  is 
really  you  at  last!  Don't  you  know  me? — 
Don't  you  know  Edith?  They  have  told  me 
all  kinds  of  things  about  you — why  you  stayed 
away — but  I  always  knew  it  was  n't  your  fault. 

9 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


Papa,  hold  the  light  near! — nearer  still,  I  tell 
you!" 

"Oh  Carmen,  please  don't — don't!"  Bess 
clutched  her  arm,  shaking  like  a  leaf  and  sob- 
bing. 

"Hush!"  the  father  cautioned,  but  he  was 
evidently  very  greatly  disturbed  himself. 
"Don't  excite  her.  I — I — perhaps  it  won't 
last.  We  mustn't  attract  attention.  Yes, 
dear  daughter,  here  is  the  light.  Now  you 
can  look  at  the  gentleman.  You  will  see  that 
you  are  mistaken." 

Hamil  said  afterwards  that  it  was  the 
strangest  and  most  upset  moment  of  his  life. 
In  fact,  that  he  was  like  a  "great,  helpless 
dummy."  Hardly  knowing  what  else  to  do, 
he  squared  a  little  more  to  the  light,  and  the 
gray  eyes  went  on  searching  his  face. 

Suddenly  they  grew  tenderly  luminous. 
The  delicate,  sensitive  lips  trembled.  She 
leaned  a  trifle  forward  and  took  his  other 
hand. 

"Jack — my  husband — it  is  you!"  she  de- 
clared deliberately,  her  voice  vibrant  with 

10 


Hamil  Learns  That  He  Is  Married 

an  undercurrent  of  happiness.  "They  can't 
fool  me !  They  need  n't  try  any  longer. 
And  you  need  n't  make  believe,  either.  I 
can  see  that  you  are  full  of  the  tremendous 
joke.  You  meant  to  give  me  the  surprise  of 
my  life,  and  you  have!  God  bless  you!  I 
knew  you  would  come  back  to  Edith.  The 
years  could  n't  break  the  hope,  or  break 
my  heart!" 

She  slipped  past  Bess,  and  close  up  to  him. 
Her  two  hands  reached  up  and  clasped  his 
face.  Before  he  could  understand — could  in 
any  way  get  out  of  the  bewilderment — she  had 
drawn  his  face  gently  down — how  could  he 
resist? — and  her  lips  were  closed  on  his. 

Then,  swiftly  changing  and  pressing  her 
cheek  to  his,  she  whispered: 

"Darling,  I  don't  care  if  people  do  look! 
Take  me  in  your  arms — hold  me  close — make 
me  know  that  your  are  here!" 

But  the  strong  hands  of  the  tall  old  woman 
were  now  on  one  of  the  girl's  arms,  and  the 
father  gently  grasped  the  other. 

"Carmen,"  he  said,   "you  must  stop   and 
ii 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


listen    to    me.    This    is    not   your   husband. 
You—" 

But  with  one  swift,  deft  motion,  she  shook 
them  both  off. 

"No!  no!  I  am  not  Carmen.  This  is  my 
husband!  Jack,  will  you  deny  me?  Will 
you  let  them  separate  us?  By  the  God  that 
made  me,  if  you  do  I  will  take  my  life!  There 
will  be  nothing  left  to  live  for!  Jack,  break 
this  spell!  What  does  it  mean?  Why  do 
you  cower? — Well,  then  say  it — if  you  must 
— say  that  you  don't  love  me." 

She  raised  her  head,  and  looked  him  in  the 
face. 

Rarely  was  a  sane  man  ever  so  near  utter 
bewilderment.  His  name — his  true  name- 
spoken  with  such  love,  such  an  appeal,  such 
hope  at  first,  and  growing  despair  now — and 
spoken  by  such  lips,  and  with  such  a  face  near 
his — There  are  no  words  that  will  measure 
up  to  what  he  felt. 

Then  came  upon  him  a  strange,  irresistible 
compassion;  a  tenderness,  indeed,  that  was 
unlike  anything  he  had  ever  felt  before. 

12 


Hamil  Learns  That  He  Is  Married 

He  might  be  doing  wrong, — acting  like  an 
impulsive  fool, — but  it  was  beyond  him  to  re- 
sist. He  bent  his  head  a  little,  and  gently 
whispered : 

"I  shall  never  say  that  I  don't  love  you.  I 
— you  may — you  must  believe  in  me.  I  won't 
desert  you.  If  they  will  let  me  I  will  stay 
with  you.  I — but  God  help  me!  what  am  I 
saying?" 

But  she  did  not  seem  to  catch  the  last. 
With  a  little  whispering  cry,  she  had  his  face 
again  to  hers. 

But  dark  as  this  part  of  the  deck  was — ex- 
cept for  the  lantern — the  bit  of  stir  had 
caught  the  notice  of  some  of  the  other  passen- 
gers, and  Hamil  was  aware  of  a  suspicious 
moving  of  chairs.  He  came  to  himself ;  that 
is,  he  got  back  his  practical  sense.  He  heard 
now  the  low  sobbing  of  Bessie  and  the  deep 
breathing  of  the  father.  It  seemed  that  they 
too  were  helpless  for  the  moment  and  bewil- 
dered. 

"Edith,"  he  whispered,  "people  are  noticing 
us.  They  think  something  is  wrong.  Sit 


The  Girl  With   Two  Selves 


down  here  again  by  your  sister  and  this  other 
lady,  and  appear  as  if  nothing  unusual  had 
happened.  I  will  sit  down  by  you." 

She  clapped  him  on  the  cheeks  again,  and 
with  a  long  breath  drew  back. 

"All  right,  dear.  Now  that  I  have  you 
again  I  am  willing  to  do  anything." 

She  went  back  to  her  chair,  but  smilingly 
led  him  along  with  her. 

"There  is  another  chair,"  she  said,  pointing 
to  one.  "Take  that." 

"I  will.  But  first,  dear,  I  want  to  say 
something  to  your  father.  It  is  important, 
and  if  I  don't  look  out  I  shall  forget  it.  You 
will  excuse  me  just  a  moment,  won't  you?" 

"Yes,"  she  said  after  a  doubting  instant. 
"But  don't  be  long,  and  don't  let  papa  say 
things  to  you  that — well,  I  don't  know  just 
what.  My  head  has  n't  been  quite  right  all 
of  the  time ;  but  I  know  that  he  has  said  some 
things  to  fool  me  and  put  me  off.  I  am  myself 
again  now,  and  he  mustn't  do  it  any  more. 
You  can  see  for  yourself  that  I  am  perfectly 
rational.  I  am  not  talking  loudly,  am  I?  I 


Hamil  Learns  That  He  Is  Married 

am  so  steady  and  composed  that  those  people 
think  there  was  n't  anything  up,  after  all,  and 
they  have  gone  back.  Well,  dear,  go  with  the 
Major  now,  and  don't  be  long." 

"I  won't.  Be  patient  and  a  good  little 
girl." 

He  turned  to  the  deep-breathing,  shaken  old 
man. 

"Now,  if  you  will  give  me  a  few  moments. 
I  have  told  Edith  that  it  was  a  piece  of  rather 
important  business,  and  she  has  kindly  excused 


me." 


"There,"  she  called  out  triumphantly,  be- 
fore her  father  could  answer,  "you  see,  he 
knows  all  about  it!  He  calls  me  Edith.  He 
does  n't  mix  me  up  with  your  'Carmens.'  Go 
on,  Jack,  and  if  you  need  a  little  extra  time 
take  it.  Nobody  can  deceive  you." 

"Thank  you  for  the  good  opinion,  dear. 
.  .  .  Now,  Major." 

The  old  man,  still  shaken  but  forcing  him- 
self to  play  his  part,  managed  to  affect  a  busi- 
nesslike air,  and  gestured  in  the  direction  of 
the  bows, 

15 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


"Good  place  there,  I  guess.  Nobody  very 
near,  and  we  can  speak  low." 

"All  right." 

They  moved  off  together,  Hamil  trying  to 
keep  his  nerves  out  of  his  gait. 


16 


CHAPTER  II 

A  BUSINESS  ARRANGEMENT 

WELL  up  forward,  in  the  little  trian- 
gle of  the  bows,  they  stopped.  No- 
body was  very  near. 

The  old  man  nervously  worked  his  hat  about 
on  his  head,  but  suddenly  stopped  and  jammed 
both  hands  into  his  trousers  pockets. 

"This  is  the  confoundest  piece  of  business 
I  ever  struck!  I  don't  know  what  you  are 
going  to  say  to  me,  and  I  don't  know  just  what 
to  say  to  you.  I  am  pretty  nearly  off  my  base. 
You  can  see  somewhere  near  what  the  situa- 
tion is." 

Hamil,  though  his  training  had  not  been  a 
business  one,  could  be  businesslike.  He  saw 
no  use  in  beating  about  the  bush. 

"Your  daughter  is  somewhat  out  of  her 
mind,"  he  said,  "and  fancies  that  I  am  her 
husband.  That  is  a  pretty  awkward  whim  to 

17. 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


deal  with,  and  I  don't  wonder  that  it  sort  of 
breaks  you  up.  But  now,  if  there  is  anything 
that  I  can  do  call  on  me ;  I  am  at  your  serv- 


ice." 


"Thank  you.  Yes,  you  are  right,  or  pretty 
near  it.  The  girl  is  mentally  unbalanced. 
She  is — it  would  take  a  good  while  to  explain 
it.  One  doctor  thinks  it  is  in  part  a  mental 
disturbance,  and  in  part  a  dual  personality. 
That  may  be  rot;  I  am  sure  I  don't  know. 
But  this  is  a  new  freak  of  hers.  She  is  n't  mar- 
ried, so  that 's  all  delusion,  but  this  is  the  first 
time  she  has  imagined  she  has  found  the  per- 
son. What  to  do  now,  and  how  to  get  her 
out  of  the  idea,  is  more  than  I  can  tell.  She 
is  set  when  once  she  makes  up  her  mind,  and 
she  has  any  amount  of  grit.  You  heard  what 
she  said  about  killing  herself?  How  I  wish 
I  knew  what  to  dol" 

Hamil  glanced  away  for  a  moment,  and 
then  back.  His  face  was  of  that  strong,  con- 
trolled type  that  is  hard  to  read.  Neverthe- 
less, there  was  sympathy  plain  in  it  now,  even 
by  the  poor  light. 

18 


A  Business  Arrangement 


"There  is  one  thing,"  he  went  on  in  an- 
swer, "that  I  should  say  must  be  done.  For 
the  present  you  will  have  to  give  in  to  her, 
and  let  her  have  her  way.  Though  of  course 
I  don't  know  much  about  her,  yet  I  am  of 
the  opinion  that  anything  different  would  be 
extremely  risky." 

The  old  man  rocked  a  little  on  his  toes,  and 
puffed  out  a  debating  breath. 

"Yes,  I  suppose  that 's  true,  and  I  don't  want 
to  take  the  risk  you  speak  of;  but — well,  how 
is  it  to  be  done?  You  would  have  to  go  along 
with  us,  and  I  can't  go  so  far  as  to  ask  that. 
The  old  Nick  can't  tell  how  long  you  would 
have  to  stay!  And  yet,  on  the  other  hand, 
it  seems  almost  like  a  business  of  life  and 
death.  I  am  willing  to  pay  any  reasonable 
amount  of  money,  if  that  will  do  any  good. 
Can  we  fix  up  anything,  either  for  humanity's 
sake  or  for  cash,  or  both?  I  am  rich  and 
have  only  these  two  children :  life  would  n't 
be  worth  living  if  anything  happened  to  either 
of  them." 

His  voice  trembled  a  little,  but  he  steadied 
19 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


himself  and  looked  up  into  Hamil's  face. 
Hamil,  dark,  almost  inscrutable  such  times  as 
he  was  in  deep  thought,  his  frame  towering  up 
big  and  massive,  stood  imposingly  over  the 
older  man.  But  this  was  only  for  an  instant. 
Hamil  dropped  an  assuring  hand  upon  his 
shoulder. 

"As  far  as  this  matter  is  concerned  consider 
it  all  right,"  with  a  confident  air.  "I  will  go 
with  you,  and  you  can  keep  me  till  you  are 
through  with  me.  I  know  you  will  feel  bet- 
ter if  we  clinch  it  on  a  money  basis,  and  you 
may  pay  me  whatever  you  please.  Call  me 
your  private  secretary,  if  you  want  to.  That 
is,  if  you  have  n't  one  already." 

The  old  man's  eyes  sparkled.  As  the  heavy 
hand  slipped  from  his  shoulder  he  seized  it 
and  shook  it. 

"I  am  thunderingly  obliged  to  you  1  It  helps 
me  out  of  a  bad  hole.  As  for  your  pay — 
to  settle  the  money  part  of  it — I  never  had  a 
secretary,  but  one  like  you  will  be  worth  to 
me  not  less  than  three  hundred  dollars  a 

20 


A  Business  Arrangement 


month.     It  shan't  be  a  cent  less,  and  if  you  say 


more — " 


"No!  no!"  broke  m  Hamil.  "That  will 
be  more  than  I  ever  earned  before,  and  will 
be  ample.  I  may  as  well  tell  you  that  I  am 
a  sort  of  floater,  and  never  did  much  at  any 
particular  job.  I  am  something  of  a  mu- 
sician ;  I  sing,  and  do  a  little  at  fencing,  box- 
ing, and  monkeying  with  a  few  of  the  modern 
languages.  In  all,  I  have  managed  to  keep 
my  head  above  water.  I  have  no  family  ties, 
so  that  I  have  n't  needed  a  great  income.  I 
haven't  told  you  my  name  yet.  It  is  John 
Dana.  I  am  such  a  cosmopolite  that  there 
is  no  need  for  me  to  give  a  hailing  place." 

"All  right,  Mr.  Dana,"  the  old  man  ac- 
quiesced with  pleased  heartiness.  "And  my 
name  is  McAllister.  I  live  in  Newark,  New 
Jersey.  Or  I  call  that  home,  though  of  late 
I  have  n't  seen  much  of  it.  I  have  traveled 
a  good  deal,  mainly  on  account  of  Carmen. 
It  has  seemed  to  take  up  her  mind. 

"But  the  first  chance  I  get  I  must  tell  you 

21 


The  Girl  With   Two  Selves 


more  about  her.  I  don't  suppose  it  will  do 
to  linger  a  great  while  now.  I  will  say, 
though,  that  this  trouble  has  been  on  her  now 
about  two  years.  Before  that  she  seemed  to 
be  all  right.  Her  name  is  Carmen, — after 
my  wife,  who  had  some  Spanish  blood,  as  well 
as  a  Spanish  name, — but  she  insists  that  it 
is  Edith.  She  knows  that  she  is  my  daughter, 
and  remembers  most  things  of  her  past  life; 
but  she  fancies  that  a  few  years  ago  she  was 
married,  and  that  enemies  have  kept  her  hus- 
band from  her.  At  first  she  was  down  on  us, 
but  after  a  while  I  managed  to  persuade  her 
that  we  had  nothing  to  do  with  his  disappear- 
ance, and  in  a  way  that  has  come  around  all 
right.  But  I  had  to  promise  her  that  if  I 
ever  did  learn  where  her  husband  was  I  would 
tell  her,  and  bring  him  to  her.  And  it  looks 
now,"  he  finished  with  a  troubled  laugh,  "as  if 
I  had  pretty  nearly  kept  my  word." 

Hamil  nodded  encouragingly. 

"It  all  may  turn  out  for  the  best.  I  should 
suppose  she  would  be  more  contented  now,  and 
easier  to  control.  It  is  an  odd  coincidence," 

22 


A  Business  Arrangement 


he  went  on,  "that  my  name  is  really  Jack — 
that  is,  John.  But  my  friends  always  call  me 
'Jack.'  Her  speaking  to  me  in  that  way,  just 
now,  was  one  of  the  things  that  helped  to  con- 
fuse me.  But,  ah!  that  makes  me  think — • 
what  is  the  rest  of  my  supposed  name?  I 
mean,  what  does  she  think  is  her  husband's 
name?" 

"  'Beecham.'  That  is,  she  pronounces  it  so. 
She  spells  it  as  if  it  was  'Beauchamp.'  That 
is  some  sort  of  English  twist,  I  believe.  I  am 
not  up  in  that  kind  of  thing." 

"Yes,  that  is  the  way  the  name  is  pro- 
nounced in  England.  It  is  a  blue-blood  name 
there.  They  have  an  Earl  of  Beauchamp, 
you  know.  Well,  I  am  Jack  Beauchamp, 
then.  So  far,  so  good." 

McAllister  looked  back  at  the  girl.  She 
was  sitting  quietly,  and  though  her  face  was 
turned  their  way  she  showed  no  sign  of  impa- 
tience or  discontent. 

"I  guess  we  have  done  a  good  stroke  of  busi- 
ness," he  said  with  a  satisfied  nod.  "Well, 
and  that  leaves  only  one  thing — it 's  all  I  think 

23 


The  Girl  With   Two  Selves 


of  now:  How  are  you  going  to  account  to 
her  for  the  way  you  will  have  to  get  along 
with  her?  She  thinks  she  is  your  wife,  you 
know." 

"Of  course  I  have  had  thaf  feature  of  the 
situation  in  my  mind,"  Hamil  said  thought- 
fully. "It  does  look  at  first  hard  to  get 
around,  but  I  believe  I  have  thought  of  a 
way.  Who  is  the  elderly  woman  sitting  by 
her?" 

"That  is  Mrs.  Gurney.  She  was  Bessie's 
nurse,  and  since  Carmen  has  had  this  trouble 
she  has  taken  care  of  her.  She  is  an  excel- 
lent woman  and  thoroughly  reliable.  She  is 
with  Carmen  night  and  day. 

"Good!  Well,  all  she  will  nave  to  do  is 
to  keep  on.  I  will  tell  Edith — I  am  going  to 
get  used  to  calling  her  that — I  will  tell  her 
that  she  is  not  well  enough  yet  to  be  out  of 
the  care  of  the  nurse,  and  that  I  shall  expect 
her  to  do,  for  the  present,  the  same  as  in  the 
past;  that  I  am  leaving  her  in  the  nurse's  care 
because  I  love  her,  and  want  her  to  get  well 
as  soon  as  possible.  I  will  promise,  besides 

24 


A  Business  Arrangement 


that,  to  have  a  room  close  by,  so  that  I  can 
be  called  quickly  if  I  should  happen  to  be 
needed.  I  think  that  this  will  satisfy  her  and 
make  things  all  right." 

"Well,"  McAllister  said,  "perhaps  it  will; 
I  only  hope  so;  for  if  it  won't  I  don't  know 
what  we  shall  do.  It  is  the  best  we  can  man- 
age"— he  wrinkled  his  brows  a  little.  "We  Ve 
got  to  go  pretty  far  with  you.  She  is  bound 
to  be  more  or  less  affectionate,  the  same  as  she 
was  tonight,  and  you  can't  repulse  her.  At 
the  same  time,  as  of  course  you  understand, 
I  shall  expect  you  to  be  as  ingenious  as  pos- 
sible in  heading  off  those  demonstrations. 
God!  What  an  affliction  it  is  that  she  should 
take  this  freak!" 

He  drew  a  long  breath,  and  looked  discon- 
tentedly off  across  the  water. 

Hamil's  short  lips  closed  a  little  tightly, 
and  a  crease  came  between  his  heavy  black 
brows.  But  this  was  only  for  a  moment.  A 
second  thought  put  him  in  the  father's  place, 
and  the  cloud  vanished.  He  said  pleasantly, 
but  not  without  some  trace  of  quiet  dignity: 

25 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


"I  appreciate  your  position,  and  will  do  the 
best  I  can  with  mine.  At  the  same  time,  mine 
is  a  difficult  one,  and  you  will  have  to  keep  in 
mind  that  it  is  so.  In  a  sense  you  will  have 
to  regard  me  as  you  would  your  family  doc- 
tor— as  placed  on  my  honor.  It  is  true  that 
you  know  nothing  about  me,  but  taking  me 
was  on  the  theory  of  'any  port  in  a  storm,'  and 
it  was  your  own  choice." 

"Oh,  that 's  all  right— it 's  all  right,"  Mc- 
Allister returned  hastily.  "I  did  n't  mean 
anything  different.  As  for  trusting  you,  it 
is  n't  nearly  as  much  as  we  trust  family  doc- 
tors, and  you  have  a  face  that  is  a  warrant  for 
confidence.  I  am  a  good  judge  of  human  na- 
ture, as  I  have  needed  to  be,  for  I  have  had  to 
trust  men,  and  I  have  seldom  made  a  mistake. 
Yes,  I  am  sure  you  are  all  right,  and  we  '11  go 
ahead." 

"Very  well,  then.  And  thank  you  for  your 
good  opinion." 

This  was  said  pleasantly,  but  with  a  busi- 
nesslike brevity.  However,  they  had  now 
pretty  nearly  threshed  the  matter  out.  In 

26 


A  Business  Arrangement 


fact,  McAllister  here  made  a  motion  as  if  to 
return  to  his  party;  but  he  apparently  thought 
of  something,  and  stopped.  He  asked: 

"Where  were  you  bound?" 

"To  London  and  then  to  New  York;  but  I 
had  no  particular  aim  about  it.  The  change 
will  make  no  difference  to  me." 

"I  see.  Well,  you  won't  need  to  change 
that  part  of  your  plan.  We  are  bound  for 
the  same  places.  After  that  we  go  for  a  short 
time  to  Newark,  and  then  to  the  coast  of 
Maine.  I  own  a  little  island  there,  and  we 
shall  rusticate  for  at  least  a  few  weeks.  After 
that  we  go  back  to  Newark.  Newark  was  n't 
my  original  home,"  he  explained  reminis- 
cently,  "for  I  was  born  and  brought  up  in 
Massachusetts.  When  I  was  a  boy  I  worked 
on  a  farm  there.  The  way  I  came  to  live  in 
Newark  was  because  it  was  my  wife's  old 
home,  and  since  she  died  it  has  seemed  like 
remembering  her  to  live  there." 

They  had  both  turned  now,  and  were  going 
back  to  the  party.  McAllister  added  a  last 
word: 

27 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


"Suppose  you  take  Carmen  aside  and  explain 
to  her  what  you  just  said?  Tell  her  why  it 
is  that  you  can't  be  with  her  all  the  time,  and 
that  she  must  keep  on  for  a  while  as  she  has 
been  doing.  You  can  say,  as  you  suggested, 
that  you  will  sleep  close  by,  so  that  she  may 
feel  that  you  are  near  her.  We  will  see,  in 
that  case,  that  it  is  arranged  so." 

"I  had  it  in  mind  to  take  the  matter  up  with 
her  at  once,"  Hamil  said. 

He  happened  to  look  at  Carmen  just  then, 
and  thought  that  she  seemed  a  trifle  uneasy. 

"We  had  best  go  back  now,"  he  concluded. 

As  they  came  up,  Carmen  shook  a  chiding 
finger  at  him. 

"You  are  slow!  I  take  it,  though,  it  was 
papa's  fault.  Sit  down  here,  now,  and  talk 
to  me." 

"Certainly — or,  wait!  Why  not  take  a  lit- 
tle walk?  We  can  have  a  small  private  con- 
fab, as  well  as  he  and  I.  It  is  a  good  place 
where  we  were  just  now." 

"Oh,  that  will  be  lovely!"  She  jumped 
up  delightedly.  "Don't  you  dare  to  follow 

28 


A  Business  Arrangement 


us!"  she  severely  warned  the  others.  "This 
is  to  be  strictly  and  absolutely  private." 

Bess  and  Mrs.  Gurney,  taken  unawares, 
looked  a  bit  blank.  McAllister,  however, 
managed  to  gesture  a  hint. 

The  poor  girl  gaily  took  Hamil's  arm,  and 
they  went  off  to  the  little  nook. 

Certainly  this  was  an  adventure  for  the 
young  man,  and  one,  as  he  might  well  have 
thought,  without  precedent.  At  least,  he  was 
likely  to  have  a  practical  understanding  of 
the  old  saw  about  the  "tangled  web,"  that  be- 
ing the  product  of  our  first  regular  practice 
in  deception. 

One  bit  of  this  tangle  was  the  three  names 
that  he  was  carrying,  and  must  keep  judi- 
ciously apart.  First,  he  was  John  Dana  Hamil, 
secondly,  he  was  John  Dana,  and  thirdly,  he 
was  Jack  Beauchamp. 

Why  he  was  John  Dana  may  as  well  be  ex- 
plained here.  It  had  come  into  his  head  that 
it  would  simplify  his  position  with  McAllis- 
ter, and  make  it  a  little  easier  to  do  business 
with  him,  if  he  pretended  that  he  was  poor, 

29 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


and  he  was  afraid  that  his  last  name  might 
lead  to  suspicions.  It  was  a  name  well  known 
in  Newark,  for  his  grandfather  had  founded 
the  family  fortune  there,  and  out  of  the  two 
or  more  millions  that  went  to  make  up  Hamil's 
present  possessions  a  considerable  part  was  in- 
vested in  Newark  real  estate.  Hamil  man- 
aged this  property  chiefly  through  agents,  and 
was  seldom  there  in  person,  but  he  thought  it 
well  to  keep  the  name  itself  out  of  sight.  For 
this  reason  he  had  lopped  it  off,  leaving  the 
whole  simply  John  Dana. 

But  this  bit  of  deception  was  easy.  He 
had  now  before  him  something  of  quite  an- 
other sort.  The  piece  of  loveliness  that 
thought  she  was  his  wife  was  cuddling  up  to 
him,  and  looking  up  in  his  face  in  confiding 
delight.  He  began  to  see  dimly  the  sort  of 
task  he  had  undertaken. 


CHAPTER  III 

CONFIDENCES 

BUT  nevertheless  he  did  not  waver.  His 
course  once  settled,  it  was  always  his 
way  to  go  perseveringly,  perhaps  dog- 
gedly, ahead.  He  smiled  down  now  at  the 
confiding  face,  and  drew  one  of  the  cuddling 
hands  into  his. 

"Listen,  dear.  I  told  you  I  had  something 
particular  to  say,  and  now  that  we  have  this 
good  chance  I  want  to  say  it.  You  will  prom- 
ise to  listen?" 

"Yes,  Jack,  of  course  I  will.  I  am  glad 
of  any  excuse  to  hear  your  blessed  voice.  It 
has  been  so  long,  don't  you  see?  Say  on." 

"It  is  about  your  health.  You  seem  well, 
but  you  know  that  your  head  has  n't  been  ex- 
actly right,  and,  in  fact — you  may  as  well 
know — that  is  the  reason  why  the  doctors 
thought  I  had  better  go  away.  They  believed 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


that  you  should  have  as  little  to  think  of  as 
possible,  and  that  your  mind  should  have  an 
entire  rest.  They  did  n't  even  mean  then  that 
you  should  travel,  but  as  you  were  restless 
and  uneasy  they  finally  consented  to  it.  This 
part,  of  course,  you  already  know?" 

"Yes,"  she  replied,  frowning  a  little,  "I  do 
know  about  it.  But  I  am  not  satisfied  about 
the  other  part,"  she  went  on,  "for  it  seems 
that  father  and  my  sister  deceived  me.  They 
said  they  did  n't  know  where  you  were.  It 
would  have  been  better  if  they  had  come  out 
with  the  whole  truth.  I  am  not  a  child,  to  be 
mislead  with  quieting  lies." 

"Oh,  but  they  did  n't  really  lie  to  you,"  he 
hastily  returned.  "They  did  n't  know  just 
where  I  was.  I  was  restless,  and  missing  you 
as  I  did,  I  could  n't  stay  in  one  place.  I  kept 
better  track  of  them,  though,  than  they  did 
of  me,  for  you  see,  when  I  thought  it  would 
do  to  break  the  doctors'  edict,  I  came.  I  had 
heard  that  you  were  much  better.  To  make 
sure  of  this,  though,  I  did  n't  let  you  know 
that  I  was  abroad.  I  wanted  to  watch  you, 

32 


Confidences 

and  see  just  how  you  were.  In  a  few  minutes 
I  should  have  come  forward.  The  loss  of  the 
ring  merely  hastened  matters.  Now,  you 
can  see,  we  planned  the  best  we  could  under 
the  circumstances;  if  there  is  any  blame  it 
belongs  to  us  all,  but  we  thought  we  were 
right." 

He  surprised  himself  by  the  honest  way  in 
which  he  reeled  off  this  yarn.  To  be  sure, 
though,  there  was  a  saving  bit  of  sincerity  in 
the  defense  he  was  making  for  the  others ;  and 
then,  behind  it  all,  was  the  general  motive — 
lofty  enough,  certainly. 

The  beautiful  brows  smoothed  out  before  his 
earnestness  and  seeming  candor.  She  drew  a 
little  breath,  and  rested  her  head  against  his 
arm. 

"Oh,  it  was  all  right,  I  suppose;  and  I  am 
not  a  judge  of  the  condition  I  was  in  then. 
Let  it  go.  Only,  I  am  myself  now,  and  there 
are  to  be  no  more  separations.  That,  of 
course,  is  understood." 

"Certainly."  He  thought  the  occasion 
warranted  putting  an  arm  gently  across  her 
3  33 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


shoulders.  "Henceforth  I  shall  keep  Edith 
under  my  wing." 

She  did  not  notice  that  he  very  slightly  ac- 
cented her  name.  It  was  a  bit  of  reservation 
that  he  almost  unconsciously  made.  But  the 
ice  was  broken  now,  and  he  must  proceed  to 
the  real  business  in  hand. 

"But  of  course,"  he  went  on,  "as  to  my  re- 
maining with  you,  we  must  be  governed  by 
regard  for  your  health.  You  must  keep  the 
nurse  with  you,  and  in  general  must  follow  the 
doctors'  other  directions.  If  not,  your  father 
will  think  it  his  duty — I  mean,  we  shall  both 
think  it  our  duty — that  I  go  away  again.  But 
as  the  plan  is  now  I  shall  always  be  near  you, 
and  at  night  shall  have  a  room  close  to  yours. 
You  understand  all  this,  don't  you,  and  will 
agree  to  it?  You  don't  want  me  to  go  away 
again?" 

Her  face  clouded  and  unclouded  again 
while  he  was  speaking.  But  now,  as  he  anx- 
iously waited  for  her  answer,  she  turned  in  his 
arms,  and  put  up  her  face. 

"Kiss  me.  Everything  shall  be  as  you  think 
34 


Confidences 

best.  Only  don't  so  much  as  hint  at  going 
away." 

Tremendously  relieved,  he  kissed  her.  The 
victory  seemed  as  good  as  won.  And  now 
he  began  to  see  that  she  was  in  many  things 
even  more  childish  and  impulsive  than  he  had 
supposed.  Even  her  kiss  was  like  a  child's. 
It  was  frank,  light  and  quickly  over  with. 
She  loved  him,  but  with  a  strange  sort  of  un- 
knowing simplicity,  and,  with  the  natural 
woman  in  her  forgotten.  She  wanted  to  be 
with  him,  she  felt  that  she  had  a  right  to  be, 
and  she  was  ready  to  quarrel  with  those  who 
would  withstand  her;  but  here,  barring  her  in- 
nocent cuddlings  and  pettings,  her  arrested 
nature  stopped. 

In  his;  relieved  mood,  and  almost  without 
knowing  it,  he  put  his  cheek  down  to  her  head, 
and  they  were  for  a  moment  silent.  After  all, 
this  was  no  light  appeal  that  she  was  uncon- 
sciously making  to  him.  The  very  nature  of 
it — the  almost  bewildering  trust,  the  crying  out 
to  him  for  his  love  and  protection,  the  impetu- 
ous and  undoubting  way  in  which  she  had 

35 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


claimed  him,  yet  with  the  child  incarnate  in 
a  beautiful  woman — these  were  gripping  him 
in  a  way  that  nothing  in  his  whole  life  had  ever 
gripped  him  before. 

It  was  with  a  little  effort  that  he  finally 
roused  himself  from  this  mood,  and  returned 
to  the  practical  issues.  It  was  time,  because 
he  had  accomplished  what  he  came  for,  and 
good  faith  required  that  he  should  not  stay 
beyond  that. 

"We  had  better  go  back  now,"  he  sug- 
gested. "This  is  a  beginning,  and  next  time 
it  shall  be  longer.  I  want  your  father  to  feel 
that  I  am  careful  of  you,  and  that  I  have  not 
forgotten  the  doctors'  orders." 

Rather  to  his  surprise,  she  did  not  object. 

"  Oh,  we  '11  go  back,  then,"  she  agreed. 
"But  as  to  the  doctors,  we  have  had  three,  and 
no  two  have  thought  alike.  But  of  course  you 
know  all  about  that,  for  you  were  in  the  plot." 
She  laughed,  and  pinched  his  arm.  "But  I 
have  forgiven  you,  haven't  I?  Oh,  yes,  and 
man  lingo  sal  do  il  mio  proposito.  Does  that 

36 


Confidences 

sound  natural?  Or  have  you  let  your  Italian 
get  rusty?" 

This  might  easily  have  been  an  awkward 
question,  but  luckily  Hamil  was  pretty  well  up 
in  Italian.  He  answered  promptly,  using 
Tuscan  as  good  as  her  own,  and  said  that  he 
believed  he  was  not  very  rusty.  "By  and  by," 
he  added  in  English,  "we  will  have  one  of  our 
old-time  talk-rests." 

To  which  she  gaily  answered:  "Mi  ralle- 
gerb"  and  let  him  bring  her  about-face. 

Hamil  concluded  that  it  might  be  wise  to 
seem  frank  and  open  with  regard  to  what  had 
passed ;  and  so,  when  they  were  back,  and  sit- 
ting in  a  little  circle,  he  told  McAllister  the 
substance  of  the  talk.  "So  you  see,"  he  wound 
up,  "Edith  is  as  practical  and  sensible  as  ever, 
and  is  willing  to  do  whatever  is  necessary  for 
her  health." 

"No,  with  one  exception,"  she  intercepted. 
"Wait,  papa.  Listen!  Jack  and  I  are  not 
to  be  separated  again.  That  is  the  excep- 
tion." 

37 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


"Oh,  that  was  already  understood,"  the  old 
man  tossed  his  head,  and  answered.  uYes, 
certainly,  Jack  is  a  fixture." 

"Very  well,  then."  She  patted  one  of 
Hamil's  hands,  and  seemed  content. 

A  little  later  the  party  broke  up.  The 
women  went  below,  and  the  Major  and  Hamil 
were  left  alone.  The  old  gentleman  had 
rather  impatiently  got  rid  of  the  valet  also. 

"I  don't  need  that  fellow  a  bit,"  he  re- 
marked, as  the  man  slipped  away.  "I  had  a 
little  fainting  fit  once;  the  girls  went  into  a 
panic,  and  made  me  get  a  human  shadow. 
But  I  leave  him  at  home  when  I  go  to  the 
island,  and  they  can't  make  me  budge  on  that. 
Not  but  that  he  's  well  enough,  for  he  's  as 
quiet  as  a  mouse,  and  knows  his  business ;  but 
his  presence  is  sort  of  humiliating." 

"I  think  I  understand,"  Hamil  said.  In 
fact,  he  was  sure  that  he  did,  for  he  himself 
could  not  endure  the  constant  attendance  of 
a  body  servant. 

"At  the  island,"  the  old  man  went  on  re- 
flectively, "I  about  half  do  as  I  want  to.  We 

38 


Confidences 

don't  have  many  servants,  and  as  I  own  the 
island — 

"But,"  he  broke  off,  "what  am  I  gabbling 
about  that  for  when  there  's  something  so  im- 
portant waiting?  I  want  to  say  that  you  man- 
aged the  business  with  Carmen  first-class,  and 
you  can't  tell  how  relieved  I  am." 

"Well,  I  am  glad  to  be  of  that  much  use," 
Hamil  said.  "But,  after  all,  what  I  did 
was  n't  hard.  Edith — I  want  to  call  her  that, 
to  get  used  to  it — she  was  very  willing  to  do 
as  I  wished.  In  some  things  like  this,  at  least, 
I  have  found  her  almost  like  a  child,  and  need- 
ing pretty  much  the  same  management." 

McAllister  assentingly  nodded. 

"I  see  that  you  understand.  Yes,  in  many 
things  she  is  almost  like  a  child.  The  ex- 
ceptions are  the  power  of  her  brain  when  she 
wants  to  talk  on  a  literary  subject,  or  anything 
of  that  kind.  Then  her  mind  is  quick  and 
generally  as  clear  as  crystal.  She  can  write 
a  sensible  letter,  too.  And  handle  figures. 
Sometimes  it  almost  seems  as  if — 

"But  I  don't  believe  it,  either.     I  was  go- 

39 


The  Girl  With  T<wo  Selves 


ing  to  say,  it  almost  seems  as  if  the  theory 
of  one  of  her  doctors  is  true.  I  mentioned 
that  a  little  while  ago.  It  was  that  dual  per- 
sonality business.  Hang  it!  I  don't  believe 
in  it,  and  yet  it  is  strange.  Why,  when  the 
girl  is  herself  she  knows  all  about  what  she 
does  when  she  is  off!  She  grieves  about  it, 
too — grieves  terribly!  But  on  the  other 
hand,  when  she  is  the  same  as  you  see  her 
now  she  does  n't  know  anything  about  her  true 
self.  In  fact,  she  does  n't  believe  there  is  any 
such  person.  Astonishing,  is  n't  it?" 

The  concluding  question  was,  in  truth,  a 
concise  interpretation  of  Hamil's  feelings. 
He  admitted  that  it  was,  and  added: 

"Still,  I  have  heard  of  a  few  such  cases — 
that  is,  somewhat  like  this  one.  .  .  .  Oh,  I 
meant  to  ask — how  long  has  this  spell  lasted? 
I  infer  that  it  has  not  been  continuous  since  it 
first  came  on.  You  said  she  was  taken  about 
two  years  ago?" 

"Just  about.  Yes,  she  has  been  herself  two 
or  three  times.  The  last  time  was  about  six 
months  ago.  She  was  all  right  for  a  week." 

40 


Confidences 

"I  see.  And  are  the  changes  abrupt? 
Can  you  tell  when  she  is  going  to  be  herself, 
or  the  reverse?" 

"Can't  tell  a  thing  about  it.  Once  she 
went  out  of  the  room  fully  herself,  and  in 
ten  minutes  she  came  back  all  wrong.  None 
of  us  ever  happened  to  be  with  her,  though, 
when  the  change  took  place,  so  we  don't  know 
whether  there  is  any  struggle  over  it,  or  not." 

"Well,"  Hamil  thoughtfully  commented, 
"I  should  suppose,  from  all  that  you  say,  that 
there  is  final  hope.  Don't  the  doctors  tell 
you  so?" 

"Yes,  they  rather  think  so,"  the  old  man 
answered  somewhat  dubiously.  "They  don't 
dare  to  be  very  confident,  though,  and  of 
course  they  have  no  way  of  being  sure.  Still, 
I  am  bound  to  keep  up  hope." 

"Certainly  you  are,"  said  Hamil  witri 
hearty  assurance.  "Why,  she  is  young  and 
robust,  and — well,  not  being  able  to  compare 
her  with  'Carmen,'  to  me  she  is  wholly  lucid." 

"Yes,  that  is  true,  and  of  course  it  is  en- 
couraging." He  brightened  a  little. 

41 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


Hamil  thought  a  moment,  then  smiling  a 
bit  said: 

"I  shall  have  to  watch  out,  or  I  may  find 
myself  in  a  predicament.  If  she  should  come 
to  herself  when  I  happened  to  be  playing  the 
attentive  husband  there  might  be  a  scene. 
At  least,  I  should  be  likely  to  find  myself 
suddenly  persona  non  grata.  My  only  hope 
of  any  mercy  would  be  the  fact  that  she 
knows,  you  say,  what  she  does  when  she  is 
not  right.  But  even  then  I  should  be  a  living 
reminder  of  disagreeable  things,  and  should 
think  it  considerate  to  drop  at  once  into  the 
background." 

"Oh,  I  don't  think  it  would  be  as  bad  as 
that,"  McAllister  dissented.  "Carmen  is  n't 
a  fool,  and  though  she  might  feel  somewhat 
embarrassed,  and  so  forth,  yet  I  can't  believe 
that  she  would  carry  it  further. 

"But,  anyway,  if  you  did  think  it  best  to 
drop  into  the  background,  as  you  say,  I 
should  n't  want  you  to  leave.  One  swallow 
does  n't  make  a  summer,  and  the  first  thing 
we  know  she  might  be  the  other  woman  again. 

42 


Confidences 

Then  the  cry  would  be  for  'Jack.'  What  the 
blazes  would  I  do? 

"Say!  You'll  stand  by  me  for  a  while, 
anyway,  won't  you?  I  mean,  no  matter  what 
sort  of  reception  Carmen  in  her  right  mind 
should  happen  to  give  you?" 

"Oh,"  returned  Hamil  with  one  of  his 
quiet  little  smiles,  and  a  gleam  in  his  black 
eyes,  "I  guess  you  won't  have  to  worry  about 
that  I  have  enlisted  for  the  war." 

"Good!  That  relieves  me.  Yes,  it  surely 
does." 

He  took  a  pipe  from  his  pocket  and  began 
to  fill  it. 

"Don't  you  smoke?    I  have  some  cigars." 

"Thank  you,  I  don't  smoke." 

The  old  man  got  the  pipe  to  drawing,  and 
then  reflectively  said: 

"As  long  as  you  are  in  the  family,  as  it 
were,  I  will  tell  you  something.  There  's  an 
English  nabob  that  wants  to  marry  Carmen. 
He  's  the  son  of  a  lord.  Good  enough  fel- 
low, I  guess,  and  if  the  girl  ever  gets  fully  on 
her  feet  it  may  be  a  match.  You  will  see 

43 


The  Girl  With   Two  Selves 


him  pretty  soon,  for  he  will  visit  me.  He 
did  last  summer,  but  nothing  came  of  it. 
She  was  herself  the  whole  time — he  has  never 
seen  her  any  other  way — but  though  I  know 
she  liked  him,  she  did  n't  seem  to  give  him 
much  encouragement." 

Hamil  was  considerably  surprised.  Rather 
hastily  he  said: 

"That  seems  a  little  queer.  I  should  n't 
suppose  that  he — I  should  think  that  her  con- 
dition would  make  such  an  idea  impossible. 
Even  if  she  should  greatly  improve,  still, — 
well,  I  suppose  that  most  any  time  she  might 
have  another  metamorphosis." 

"I  know,"  the  old  man  readily  admitted. 
"And  it  is  strange.  But  yet,  it  is  so,  and 
Quesencourt  seems  to  be  all  kinds  of  earnest. 
The  girl,  as  I  say,  is  rather  offish.  But  she 
is  one  to  keep  her  own  counsel,  and  I  never 
felt  like  asking  her.  You  see,  her  lucid 
spells  have  n't  been  very  long,  and  I  have  al- 
ways tried  not  to  fret  or  bother  her.  There 
was  n't  any  hurry,  either,  for  if  her  trouble 

44 


Confidences 

should  continue  of  course  there  would  n't  be 
any  marrying." 

"That  should  go  without  saying."  Hamil 
put  this  in  with  emphasis. 

"Certainly.  Well,  all  is,  we  shall  have  to 
wait  and  see  how  things  come.  By  the  way, 
if  Carmen  should  have  one  of  her  right  spells, 
you  would  wonder  at  the  change.  Nothing 
childish  about  her  then.  She  is  n't  stiff  or 
haughty,  but  she  is  full  of  ginger  and  inde- 
pendence. Everybody  admires  her,  and  she 
is  fine  company.  If  only  the  good  Lord 
would  let  her  stay  like  that  what  a  blessing 
it  would  be!" 

"And  yet,"  supplemented  Hamil,  speaking 
a  bit  low  and  almost  as  if  to  himself,  "some 
of  us  might  miss  Edith.  She  has  a  person- 
ality of  her  own,  even  if  it  is  n't  exactly  a  real 
one,  and  if  she  went  away  for  good,  why,  it 
would  almost  be  as  if  she  had  died." 

McAllister  took  out  his  pipe,  and  let  the 
smoke  go. 

"To  tell  the  truth,"  he  said,  "I  have  thought 

45 


The  Girl  With  TIVO  Selves 


of  that,  but  of  course — well,  I  could  n't  really 
wish  her  to  be  any  of  the  time  in  such  a  state. 
But  as  you  are  speaking  of  it  you  remind  me 
— Dr.  Carlisle  said  of  her  that  I  had  a  double 
pearl — two  beautiful  natures  in  one  body. 
Poetical,  and  in  one  way  sort  of  comforting. 
Really,  I  thought  so." 

"I  think  so."  Hamil  got  up.  "I  shall 
have  to  be  excused.  I  have  some  neglected 
mail  to  look  over,  and  after  that  I  think  I 
shall  turn  in.  Good  night." 

"Good  night,  Dana — No,  I  mean  Beau- 
champ.  We  may  as  well  get  used  to  that 


name." 


McAllister  settled  back  to  further  reflec- 
tions, and  a  few  more  whiffs.  And  Hamil, 
minus  the  whiffs,  but  not  the  reflections,  went 
on  his  way. 


CHAPTER  IV 

BESS 

AS  this  day  ended,  so  the  next  began. 
Edith  showed  no  sign  of  returning  to 
Carmen,  and  Hamil  was  therefore 
able  to  continue  in  his  newly  assumed  part. 
As  far  as  he  could  see  she  was  fully  satisfied 
and  contented,  and  showed  no  outward  indi- 
cation of  irrationality.  This  in  fact,  was  true 
almost  to  a  disconcerting  extent.  That  is  to 
say,  she  met  him  the  next  morning  with  a 
quiet  certitude  that  seemed  to  mean  anything 
but  madness,  and  with  a  smiling  content  that 
had  no  spark  of  apparent  excitement  in  it. 
They  were  by  themselves  for  the  moment  but 
doubtless  that  made  no  difference  in  what  she 
did,  which  was  to  put  up  her  lips  for  a  kiss. 

So  far  did  this  wonderful  bit  of  mockery 
and  cruel  delusion  embarrass  him  that  for  an 
instant  he  felt  foolish  and  awkward,  and  could 

47, 


The  Girl  With   Two  Selves 


not  even  make  the  relief  and  encouragement 
of  the  rest  of  the  situation  steady  him  through. 
He  kissed  her  almost  hastily,  and  felt  a  guilty 
impulse  to  retreat  a  step  when  he  had  done  it. 
However,  by  an  effort,  he  stood  off  the  little 
panic,  and  after  another  moment  or  two  was 
level  with  the  requirements  again. 

Just  then  Bessie,  in  a  kind  of  school-girl 
rush,  turned  the  corner  of  the  bulkhead  where 
they  stood. 

"Oh!" 

She  pulled  up  short,  prettily  flushed,  and 
with  an  air  of  rather  clouded  but  yet  pressing 
responsibility. 

"We  lost  you,  Edith,"  she  put  an  evident 
check  on  herself  and  her  mission,  and  depre- 
catingly  said,  "Don't  you  and  Mr. —  Mr. 
Beauchamp  want  to  join  the  rest  of  us?  It's 
almost  breakfast  time." 

Edith — to  give  her  the  privilege  of  naming 
herself — looked  inquiringly  up  into  Hamil's 
face. 

"Is  n't  she  a  plague,  Jack?    Shall  we  go?" 

But  Bessie  looking  at  him  now,  instead  of 


Bess 

her,  sniffed  and  made  a  little  impatient  ges- 
ture. 

"Oh,  I  can't  go  so  far  as  to  call  sister  Bessie 
a  'plague,'"  he  said  coolly.  "Especially  I 
can't  when  she  comes  to  give  us  timely  notice 
of  breakfast.  We  will  go  with  you,  Bessie." 

The  girl  sniffed  again,  and  tossed  her  head. 
But  this  was  as  far  as  she  could  very  well  go; 
it  seemed  like  taking  an  unfair  advantage  of 
his  position  to  ring  in  her  name  like  that,  but 
of  course  this  was  no  time  to  protest.  She 
took  Edith's  other  arm;  and  Edith,  who  had 
not  seen  the  little  by-play,  good  naturedly  suf- 
fered herself  to  be  convoyed  away. 

Everything  else  for  the  day  went  along 
smoothly.  There  was  so  much  method  in  the 
girl's  madness  that  scarcely  any  person  could 
have  suspected  that  it  was  madness  at  all. 
Hamil  was  still  obliged  to  keep  in  the  fore- 
ground, but  now  Edith  took  his  presence  more 
as  a  matter  of  course,  and  did  not  assert  him, 
so  to  speak,  and  he  was  thus  able  to  play  his 
part  more  quietly,  and  with  less  embarrassing 
prominence.  She  no  longer  broke  out  openly 

49 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


in  little  bursts  of  affection,  but  instead  was 
content  to  give  him  a  tender  glance,  or  a  quiet 
hand-pat,  or  to  slip  her  arm  gently  around  his 
when  she  fancied  a  little  promenade. 

Certainly,  if  the  matter  was  to  go  on  at  all, 
it  could  not  go  on  better.  Hamil  felt  surer 
of  himself,  being  surer  of  her,  and  what  was 
more,  he  was  now  able  to  play  his  part  in  a 
way  infinitely  more  satisfactory  to  the  others. 
Even  Bessie,  who  had  seemed  to  take  the  mat- 
ter most  to  heart,  was,  for  the  time  at  least, 
pacified,  and  from  treating  him  with  a  sort  of 
distressed  politeness  with  subdued  flashes  of 
distrust  and  resentment,  was  acquiescently 
civil.  It  was  a  hard-enough  role  at  best  that 
he  was  playing,  and  even  this  little  softening 
and  improvement  was  helpful. 

From  this  time  on,  for  several  days,  and,  in 
fact,  till  they  had  started  on  their  sea  voyage, 
the  satisfactory  state  of  things  continued. 
The  Major  lost  the  sharp  edge  of  his  worri- 
ment,  and  was  almost  resigned  to  the  situation, 
Bessie  was  at  least  able  to  wear  her  mask  with- 
out so  much  ado,  and  risk  of  discovery,  and  so 

50 


Bess 

far  acknowledged  the  general  debt  as  to 
be  rather  pleasant,  and  Mrs.  Gurney  had 
dropped  her  first  almost  fierce  watchfulness. 
The  valet  had  said  nothing  from  the  first; 
his  attitude  was  wholly  one  of  non-interfer- 
ence ;  and  in  any  case,  he  did  not  count.  Tak- 
ing it  all  in  all,  it  was  a  pretty  little  winning 
fight  for  the  young  man. 

What  might  be  called  the  stage-trappings 
of  the  play  had  now  become  familiar  to  all. 
Hamil  was  at  home  as  Jack  Beauchamp,  and 
it  was  seldom  that  anybody  vexed  Edith  by 
calling  hei  by  any  other  name.  It  was  in 
fact,  a  little  amusing  to  see  how  all  were  bend- 
ing to  the  absurd  situation,  and  learning  to 
take  it  as  real. 

"As  true  as  you  live,"  said  McAllister  to 
Hamil  one  day,  "I  am  almost  beginning  to 
take  this  in  earnest  Blazes!  I  don't  know 
where  we  shall  all  finally  land  if  it  keeps  on! 
Her  delusions  are  so  convincing  that  we  are 
accepting  them  as  the  real  thing.  Anyhow, 
I  shall  pretty  soon  feel  that  the  doctor  is  right, 
and  that  I  have  two  pearls  in  one  shell !" 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


This  was  early  in  the  day,  and  later  some- 
thing a  little  different  happened. 

Hamil  and  Edith  were  sitting  in  steamer- 
chairs  somewhat  apart  from  the  others,  and 
for  the  previous  few  minutes  she  had  been  un- 
usually quiet.  She  seemed  distrait.  But  as 
he  glanced  at  her,  she  smiled,  and  put  her 
hand  upon  his. 

"I  have  a  call  to  the  piano,"  she  said. 
"Will  you  go  down  with  me?" 

"Certainly."  There  was  nothing  disturb- 
ing about  this,  for  he  knew  that  both  her  per- 
sonalities loved  music,  and  just  now  the  sea 
was  unusually  smooth,  and  the  motions  of  the 
ship  easy. 

He  led  her  down  to  the  piano.  Nobody 
happened  to  be  very  near. 

He  looked  over  some  music  that  was  in  the 
rack.  "Do  you  suppose  there  is  anything  here 
you  want?  What  do  you  feel  like  playing? 
What  is  the  mood?" 

"No,  I  don't  want  anything  there.  I  just 
feel  like  letting  out  what  is  pent  up  in  me. 

52 


Bess 

Stand  close  by  me  where  I  can  realize  you 
and  listen." 

He  left  the  music,  and  came  up  behind  her. 
"I  am  ready,  at  attention,  dear." 

"Even  though  you  are  going  to  be  a  little 
bored?"  She  looked  back  and  up  at  him. 

"But  you  always  were  just  so  good,"  she 
complimented,  "and  besides,  though  you 
don't  understand  music,  you  have  an  artist's 
soul.  At  sentimental  times  at  twilight  you 
have  asked  me  to  play,  and  I  have  always 
known  that  you  meant  it.  What  was  that  lit- 
tle verse  you  once  quoted  to  me?  It  began, 
'Oh,  take  the  lute  this  brooding  hour  for  me!' 
What  was  the  rest  of  it?" 

Now,  as  truth  is  stranger  than  fiction,  it  so 
happened  that  Hamil  knew  the  verse.  He 
had  seen  it  in  print,  pinned  to  the  wall  of  a 
room  in  a  London  hotel.  It  had  struck  his 
fancy,  and  he  had  memorized  it.  Almost 
startled  at  this  helpful  trick  of  fate,  and  in  a 
queer  way,  too,  impressed,  he  bent  a  little 
nearer,  and  repeated  the  verse: 

53 


The  Girl  With   Two  Selves 


Oh,  take  the  lute  this  brooding  hour  for  me! 
The  tender  lute,  the  hollow-crying  lute, 
Nor  call  me  even  with  thine  eyes — be  mute, 
And  touch  the  strings — aye,  touch  them  tenderly. 

"I  know  that  interprets  your  soul,  dear," 
she  said,  nodding  satisfiedly.  "Now  do  you  be 
mute,  according  to  the  song's  command,  and 
listen!" 

Her  fingers  dropped  on  the  keys,  and  after 
a  tentative  ripple,  swept  off  in  subdued  notes 
that  were  quaint  and  sweet.  She  was  wholly 
face-about  now,  and  seemed  to  have  launched 
herself  without  reserve  into  the  music. 
Hamil,  at  first  a  bit  discomposed,  settled  him- 
self again  at  ease.  He  had  been  a  shade 
startled  when  she  had  spoken  of  his  ignorance 
of  this  art,  for  in  fact,  he  was  an  accomplished 
pianist.  Indeed,  he  had  made  a  little  sensa- 
tion in  some  German  musical  circles.  This 
was  because  of  an  assured  strength,  and  yet 
a  mastery  down  to  delicacy,  not  often  seen  in 
combination.  As  one  critic  had  put  it,  he 
"crushed  the  notes  to  obedience  without  hurt- 
ing them."  To  be  clapped  thus  summarily, 

54 


Bess 

therefore,  into  the  outer  darkness  of  ignorance 
was  a  little  surprising  and  disconcerting.  He 
wished  heartily  that  Jack  Beauchamp  was  in 
this,  as  he  had  proved  to  be  in  so  many  other 
things,  very  much  like  Jack  Hamil.  He  must 
now  suppress  himself  along  musical  lines, 
and  so  deprive  himself  of  what  he  had  looked 
forward  to  as  a  delightful  and  wholly  inno- 
cent pleasure. 

But  there  was  no  help  for  it,  and  so  now  he 
made  the  best  of  the  occasion,  and  attentively 
listened. 

She  was  doing  fugues  and  preludes,  and  he 
recognized  things  in  Bach.  To  his  surprise, 
as  she  went  on,  he  saw  that  she  was  following 
the  old  music,  and  not  the  modern  adapta- 
tions. She  had  a  good  touch,  and  sympathy, 
but  he  wondered  how  so  young  a  person  came 
to  go  back  so  far.  Pretty  soon  she  came  to 
some  rather  trying  accents,  but  managed  them 
successfully,  not  falling  into  the  pit  of  un- 
seemly and  unmusical  noise,  though,  to  be 
sure,  she  had  young  and  responsive  nerves, 
and  good,  supple  hands. 

55 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


She  stopped  after  a  little  more  of  it,  and 
he  had  to  restrain  himself  not  to  applaud. 

She  let  her  hands  rest  on  the  keys  for  a 
moment,  then,  and  he  thought  She  was  about 
to  start  afresh;  but  instead  she  turned  and 
looked  up  at  him. 

"Do  you  like  it?  Have  I  struck  your 
mood?  Or,  I  mean,  have  I  compelled  a 
mood  that  you  did  not  have  at  first?" 

"That  is  it.    You  have  compelled  one." 

"I  can  lead  you  in  one  thing,  then,  for  all 
you  are  so  strong.  Do  you  know,  I  always 
gloated  a  little  over  that — to  think  there  was 
this  one  superiority  that  I  had?  Selfish  and 
silly  in  me,  is  n't  it?" 

"Not  a  bit!  No,  I  am  glad  it  is  so.  But 
I  am  not  ahead  of  you  in  all  those  other  things. 
Don't  flatter  me." 

"Yes,  you  are.  But  I  want  it  to  be  so.  I 
want  to  be  dominated.  That  is,  I  want  to  be 
dominated  by  you ;  nobody  else." 

She  nodded  decisively,  as  if  this  settled  it, 
and  wheeled  from  him  again. 

She    played    other    things — rapid    etudes, 

56 


Bess 

snatches  from  concerts,  bursts  from  operas, 
and  unknown  bits  that  had  a  barbarian  sug- 
gestion ;  the  more  so  that  she  played  them  with 
a  kind  of  subdued  abandon  that  reminded 
Hamil  of  the  Gipsy  touches  in  the  off-hand 
performance  of  some  of  the  great  Hungarian 
artists. 

At  last  she  broke  into  a  galloping  some- 
thing-or-other  that  nobody  could  have  named 
or  defined,  and  carried  it  on  recklessly  till  it 
was  plunging,  as  it  were,  over  a  precipice; 
then  she  gave  her  head  a  sideways  toss,  and 
abruptly  stopped. 

"I  can't  rescue  it  from  death!"  she  laughed, 
and  swung  about  on  the  stool. 

"It  is  like  you,  is  n't  it,"  he  risked  it  to  say, 
"to  take  daring  cross-country  gallops  like 
that?" 

"I  suppose  so,"  she  answered,  rather  indif- 
ferently. "I  am  tired  of  it  now.  Take  me 
back  on  deck." 

This  time  Bessie  had  prepared  to  neighbor 
with  them  and  had  a  chair  close  by  theirs. 

"Music,"  explained  Hamil  as  they  came 

57 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


up.     "Edith    was    haunted    by    things    that 
would  not  down." 

Bess  was  looking  a  bit  grave.  Evidently 
it  was  still  hard  work  for  her  to  accept  phil- 
osophically all  the  turns  and  angles  of  this 
trying  situation.  Particularly,  the  little  side- 
talks  and  tete-a-tetes  naturally  strained  her 
patience.  It  no  doubt  seemed  to  her  some- 
times— especially  when  she  happened  to  be  a 
little  out  of  sorts — that  by  a  slight  use  of  tact 
Hamil  could  have  avoided  some  of  them. 
However,  she  had  no  real  cause  to  be  severe 
with  him,  and  in  fact  did  not  at  any  time 
really  forget  how  well  he  was  doing,  and  do- 
ing with  a  task  as  delicate  as  any  man 
ever  undertook.  Hamil  was  looking  a  little 
searchingly  at  her  now,  as  if  he  had  noticed 
her  grave  turn,  and  guessed  the  reason,  and 
as  if  he  thought  he  had  said  enough  in  the 
way  of  explanation.  She  hastily  took  an- 
other tack.  She  nodded  pleasantly,  and  said 
that  he  could  not  surprise  her  with  such  news. 
"Edith  climbs  the  heights  of  Bach  and  Bee- 
thoven, and  goes  down  the  valley  of  rag-time 

58 


jigs  when  the  fit  seizes  her,"  she  threw  off 
jocosely. 

Edith  herself  clapped  down  a  yawn  with 
her  hand,  and  settled  her  head  against  the 
back  of  her  chair. 

"I  am  going  to  have  a  little  nap.  You 
two  may  go  walk  if  you  want  to.  Come  back 
pretty  soon,  though,  and  make  sure  that  my 
mouth  has  n't  dropped  open." 

Hamil  glanced  inquiringly  at  Bess.  For 
some  reasons  the  suggestion  suited  him.  Bess 
hesitated  for  an  instant;  but  then,  as  Edith 
turned  inquiringly  her  way,  she  nodded  and 
jumped  up.  "Certainly.  I  'd  like  to  go. 
Do  you  want  to,  Jack?" 

It  was  the  first  time  that  she  had  spoken 
to  him  quite  so  familiarly,  and  it  cost  her  a 
touch  of  added  color;  but  she  braved  it  out 
unshakenly. 

"Oh,  certainly,  yes,"  he  answered.  "We  '11 
take  a  look  at  you  once  in  a  while,  Edith,  and 
make  sure  about  the  mouth." 

She  snuggled  down  in  the  chair  like  a  child, 
turned  her  face  away,  and  shut  her  eyes. 

59 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


The  two  caught  step,  and  started  off.  The 
ship  now  had  something  of  a  roll,  and  Hamil 
offered  his  arm,  but  Bess  sturdily  rejected  it. 

"I  like  a  chance  with  hands  in  pockets,  the 
same  as  you  have,"  she  said.  She  thrust  her 
hands  into  the  side  pockets  of  her  short  jacket, 
doing  it  in  what  she  meant  to  be  a  mannish 
fashion,  but  which,  in  a  taking  little  way, 
rather  missed  the  design.  Hamil  jammed  his 
hands  into  his  own  coat  pockets,  and  so  made 
himself  comfortable. 

They  covered  something  of  a  stretch,  their 
gait  being  a  fairly  brisk  one;  and  then  Hamil 
was  ready  with  what  he  had  planned  to  say. 
It  was  because  he  wanted  to  say  it,  and  at  the 
same  time  not  seem  too  eager,  that  he  had 
been  glad  of  Edith's  suggestion. 

"You  did  well  in  backing  me  up  just  now," 
was  the  way  he  began.  "I  mean  by  calling 
me  'Jack,'  and  consenting  to  this  walk.  Such 
things  help.  I  need  what  help  I  can  get,  too, 
for  it  is  n't  just  the  easiest  job  in  the  world." 

He  looked  down  at  her.  His  voice  had  a 
certain  weight  of  suggestion.  Though  she 

60 


Bess 

was  not  looking  up  at  the  moment,  yet  she 
seemed  to  understand  and  faintly  colored. 

"Why,  certainly  it  is  a  hard  job,"  she  said 
unhesitatingly.  "What  you  imply,"  she  went 
on,  "is  that  hitherto  I  have  n't  exactly  backed 
you  up.  I  can't  say  that  is  n't  so,  and  yet  I 
am  not  sure  I  am  wholly  to  blame.  It  has 
been  a  hard  place  for  me,  too.  Still,  from 
now  on  I  will  try  to  do  better.  You  are  frank 
in  speaking  out  like  this,  but  it  is  the  right 
way.  I  am  entirely  frank  and  outspoken 
about  it  myself." 

She  was  looking  him  in  the  face,  now,  a 
trifle  flushed,  but  not  in  any  way  faltering. 

His  eyes  met  the  girl's  encouragingly. 

"I  am  glad  I  have  learned  so  soon  to  know 
you.  Now  things  will  be  easier.  I  shall  feel 
that  you  are  standing  in  with  me,  and  not 
barely  putting  up  with  me,  and  even  at  times 
watching  me.  Besides,  it  will  be  easier  for 
you.  Doing  anything  is  always  more  inter- 
esting than  looking  on.  Come  close  to  us, 
then.  Call  me  'Jack:,'  at  every  decent  oppor- 
tunity. Don't  wince  when  I  call  you  'Bess.' 

61 


(The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


Make  the  whole  thing  as  real  as  you  can.  I 
can  see  that  you  Ve  got  lots  of  common  sense, 
and  once  we  get  each  other  right,  we  shall 
be  all  right." 

He  turned,  and  put  out  his  hand.  Bess 
brightened  up  and  unhesitatingly  and  even 
heartily,  gave  him  her  own. 

He  shook  it  in  businesslike  fashion,  and  they 
started  on  again.  "There!"  he  said.  "Now 
the  treaty  is  in  full  force  1" 


62 


CHAPTER  V 

DISTURBING  POSSIBILITIES 

THEY  did  not  walk  a  great  deal  longer, 
and  when  they  finally  paused  before 
Edith  she  was  awake  and  watching 
them,  and  smilingly  made  them  sit  beside  her. 
She  was  bright  and  alert,  like  a  child  fresh 
from  a  nap. 

Again  Hamil  saw  that  in  some  things  she 
suggested  physical  immaturity;  or,  rather,  a 
harking  back  to  her  very  young  girlhood. 
This  condition  he  had  already  been  prepared 
for.  But  it  was  also  true  that  there  were 
ways  in  which  Carmen  was  present — sug- 
gestions of  another  personality  that  drove 
him  away;  somebody  whom  he  did  not  know, 
that  tried  to  come  between  him  and  Edith,  and 
whom  he  repulsed. 

But  there  were  little  manifestations  that 
startled  him.  Bess  had  left  on  a  chair  a  thin 

63 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


yolume,  an  English  translation  of  the  Veda 
Brahmana.  Edith  picked  it  up,  and  glanced 
at  it. 

"Where  did  you  get  this,  Bess?" 

"Oh,  in  a  rash  moment  I  bought  it.  I 
found  it  in  a  shop  in  Florence.  It  is  beyond 
all  accounts  poky.  I  keep  it  around  here  in 
the  chairs  so  that  when  people  glance  at  it — 
there  is  no  danger  that  anyone  will  steal 
it — they  will  think  me  profound." 

"That's  a  worthy  motive.  Isn't  it,  Hear 
hubby?" 

"Hubby"  was  a  new  word  in  the  artless  vo- 
cabulary of  Edith's  delusion,  and  it  embar- 
rassed Hamil.  Somehow  it  was  not  exactly 
easy  to  play  his  part  at  such  times.  However, 
he  did  not  outwardly  show  his  discomposure, 
and  answered  her  now  with  matter-of-fact 
readiness: 

"I  don't  dare  to  criticize.  Don't  ask  me 
why  not." 

Edith  shook  her  head,  and  opened  the  book. 

"Let  me  see,  Jack,  there  is  a  whole  lot  that 
you  don't  know  about  this  sort  of  thing,  is  n't 

64 


Disturbing  Possibilities 


there?  You  haven't  been  grinding  at  it 
since  you  have  been  gone,  have  you?" 

Now  Hamil,  in  literature,  as  in  music,  was 
really  of  some  little  account.  Therefore  to 
see  himself  thus  again  summarily  shut  off, 
amused  him,  though  on  the  whole  he  did  not 
care.  That  is,  he  did  not  care  this  time, 
though  he  wished  that  she  had  left  him  the 
music.  Still,  depriving  him  of  one  thing  in 
which  he  knew  he  excelled,  made  him  dubi- 
ous, respecting  others  in  which  he  was  doubt- 
ful, but  knew  might  be  brought  up  at  any 
time. 

"No,  I  have  n't  added  much  to  my  stock 
of  that  kind  of  knowledge,"  he  answered. 

"But  you  can  read  Dante,  and  don't  need 
a  translation.  And  at  one  time  you  were  in- 
terested in  the  Poema  del  Cid,  you  know, 
dear — because  he  was  a  fighter?  Tell  Bess 
when  he  flourished." 

"Near  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century,"  he 
answered  with  school-boy  promptness.  This 
bright  pedagogical  diversion  was  entertaining 
enough.  Besides,  she  had  called  him  still  an- 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


other  pet  name,  and  this  did  not  put  him  in  a 
less  agreeable  frame  of  mind.  He  meant  to 
be  sensible,  but  to  save  him  he  could  not  help 
a  queer,  pleased  sort  of  thrill  whenever  she 
grew  intimate.  He  was  ashamed  of  the  feel- 
ing the  next  instant,  and  was  disposed  to  be  se- 
vere with  himself  about  it,  yet  he  always  ended 
by  accepting  it,  and  sneakingly  making  the 
most  of  what  she  offered. 

"Oh,  I  knew  that,"  put  in  Bess.  "Come, 
don't  think  I  am  the  biggest  numbskull  ever!" 

And  so  they  went  on  until  she  was  per- 
suaded to  sing,  offering  to  get  from  the  bot- 
tom of  her  trunk  an  old  French  ballad  of 
which  she  was  fond. 

"We  arc  not  amusing  Jack,"  Edith  re- 
minded her.  "You  know  he  can't  follow  us. 
He  has  music  only  in  his  soul." 

But  here  Hamil  found  a  chance  to  put  in 
something  for  himself.  It  was  a  question. 

"What  is  the  'Le  Bijou'  your  father  has 
mentioned?"  he  asked.  "Is  it  your  island? 
You  spoke  of  it,  Bessie." 

"Oh,  yes,  surely,"  she  said.  "It  is  papa's 
66 


Disturbing  Possibilities 


island.  It  is  off  the  coast  of  Maine,  and  about 
fifteen  miles  from  the  mainland.  You  don't 
know  about  it,  of  course,  because  papa  bought 
it  after  you  went  away.  It 's  an  awfully  jolly 
place.  There  was  a  little  hotel  on  it  once, 
but  papa  made  it  into  a  cottage — a  pretty  big 
one — and  did  a  lot  of  other  things  to  the  is- 
land itself.  We  have  golf  and  tennis,  and  we 
have  plenty  of  boats.  There  's  a  peach  of  a 
hall  for  dancing,  too,  and — Oh,  most  every- 
thing. To  cap  the  climax  we  shall  have  peo- 
ple. I  mean  a  few,  you  know.  There  '11  be 
Mr.  Quesencourt — papa  said  he  told  you 
about  him" — she  caught  his  eye,  Edith  not 
noticing,  and  nodded  significantly — "and  be- 
sides him  there  will  be  Mr.  Baum — he  's  a 
Jew — a  friend  of  father's — and  Miss  Win- 
rose;  she  's  my  friend.  And,  let  me  see,  why 
Ledyard  Appling  and  a  college  friend  may 


come." 


"And  unless  Ledyard  himself  does  come 
the  others  won't  count,"  murmured  Edith. 
"Oh,  nonsense!" 
But  the  girl  did  show  a  trace  of  extra  color. 

67 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


The  song  was  forgotten  and  she  volunteered 
some  more  information  about  the  island.  It 
seemed  that  an  ex-fisherman,  with  his  wife, 
son  and  daughter  lived  there  the  year  round 
and  looked  after  the  property,  and  that  sum- 
mers the  Major  took  four  negro  servants  with 
him.  These  were  all  from  his  establishment 
at  Newark  which  he  maintained  whether 
there  or  absent,  and  were  all  of  one  family. 
The  son  and  daughter  had  grown  up  in  his 
service. 

Hamil  was  interested,  and  listened  closely. 
Just  as  she  was  finishing,  however,  an  odd 
thought  struck  him,  and  at  once  gripped  his 
attention.  He  let  a  remark  or  two  intervene, 
and  then  put  a  question.  He  watched  Edith's 
face  as  he  did  it,  but  took  care  that  she  did 
not  notice. 

"This  Mr.  Quesencourt  is  the  son  of  an 
English  lord,  is  he  not?"  he  spoke  to  Bess. 

"Yes,  he  is  the  only  son  and  heir  of  Lord 
Bracenham.  He  is  the  Honorable  Mr.  Ques- 
encourt, to  give  him  his  English  title." 

"Is  he  musical?"  Hamil  questioned  further. 
68 


Disturbing  Possibilities 


"Not  to  hurt."  She  laughed.  "He  plays  a 
few  chords  of  the  piano.  That  gives  him  an 
accompaniment  for  the  'British  Lion,'  and 
'Tim  Curley.' " 

"Then  it  seems,"  he  said,  turning  now  to 
Edith,  "that  you  and  he  have  a  little  more  in 
common  in  a  musical  way  than  you  and  I. 
Do  you  like  him  otherwise?  You  know  I 
never  met  him." 

This  was  somewhat  of  a  daring  flight,  for 
of  course  he  could  not  tell  whether  her  present 
self  knew  anything  about  the  Englishman. 
Or,  if  she  did  know,  he  could  not  tell  what 
she  would  expect  him  to  know.  On  the  other 
hand,  he  had  noticed  that  she  almost  never 
spoke  of  people  that  in  the  past  they  were  both 
supposed  to  have  met,  and  he  had  come  to 
think  that  her  backward  view  ran  into  a  kind 
of  mental  haze  that  she  either  could  not  or  did 
not  try  to  penetrate. 

"Why,  as  to  that,"  she  said  a  little  hesita- 
tingly, "I — I  don't  exactly  know.  I  mean 
by  that  I  can't  quite  recall  him."  She  looked 
a  bit  troubled,  and  slightly  confused.  "It 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


was  before  my  sickness  that  I  met  him,  was  n't 
it,  Bess?"  she  went  on,  turning  to  her  sister. 

"Yes,  dear,  some  little  time  before."  Bess 
looked  questioningly  and  a  little  reproachfully 
at  Hamil.  The  motive  for  these  questions 
was  not  clear. 

But  he  had  found  out  all  he  wanted,  and  at 
once  changed  the  subject. 

"Well,  never  mind  about  him.  I  am 
merely  glad  to  learn  that  he  is  as  big  a  booby 
in  the  musical  line  as  I  am.  And  by  the  way, 
speaking  of  music,  while  I  was  gone  I  heard 
an  old  fellow,  a  pupil  of  Dreyschock,  do  some 
stunts.  It  was  in  the  way  of  octave-playing. 
Of  course  I  did  n't  appreciate  it,  but  still  I 
was  surprised.  I  will  tell  you  more  about  it 
sometime." 

The  chat  drifted  into  other  lines,  and  Edith 
fully  maintained  herself.  There  were  no 
more  lapses  of  memory,  or  signs  of  confusion. 
As  later  they  were  going  to  lunch  Hamil  got  a 
chance  for  a  private  word  with  Bess. 

"I  asked  questions  about  the  Englishman," 
he  said,  "to  test  her  scope  with  regard  to  things 

70 


Disturbing  Possibilities 


that  Carmen  was  most  interested  in.  It 
would  seem  that  she  would  keep  an  impres- 
sion about  the  man  she  had  thoughts  of  mar- 
rying, if  she  would  about  anybody.  Yet  He 
is  hazy  to  her.  I  am  beginning  to  understand 
her  limitations,"  he  still  further  explained, 
"and  that  is  a  wonderful  help  in  my  dealing 
with  her." 

Bess  made  a  convincing  show  of  being  sat- 
isfied. 

"Only,"  she  said,  slyly,  as  a  last  word,  "I 
am  not  at  all  sure  that  Carmen,  in  her  right 
mind,  does  not  care  so  dreadfully  much  for 
Mr.  Quesencourt.  I  know  she  likes  him,  for 
she  has  admitted  as  much.  But  I  don't  be- 
lieve—" 

She  paused  again  and  glanced  doubtfully 
at  Hamil's  inscrutable  face.  Then  she  went 
lightly  on : 

"He  is  handsome  an'd  will  some  day  come 
into  a  great  title.  And  of  course  we  girls  are 
human — " 

"Child,  child,"  Hamil  interrupted,  "why 
do  you  tell  me  this?" 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


Again  Bess  surveyed  him ;  then  deliberately 
leaving  him,  she  answered  across  her  shoul- 
der: 

"Because  you  need  it." 

He  found  Edith,  and  looking  down  at  her 
loveliness  gloried  in  the  conviction  that  Ques- 
encourt,  whatever  his  affiliations  with  the  un- 
known "Carmen,"  could  not  participate  in 
this  sweet  privacy.  Then  a  gripping  thought 
caught  him:  what  would  happen  to  Edith  if 
she  all  at  once — without  the  slightest  warn- 
ing— became  Carmen;  a  Carmen  to  whom 
Quesencourt  was  acceptable, — and  accepted; 
and  then  flashed  back  to  Edith  again — Edith, 
his  wife!  He  caught  his  breath  sharply,  and 
forgetting  all  vows  to  himself,  and  all  prom- 
ises to  Major  McAllister,  took  both  her  hands 
in  his  and  laid  their  palms  upon  his  cheeks. 
She  smiled  confidentially,  as  if  the  act  were 
the  most  natural  thing  in  the  world. 

It  was  borne  home  to  him  that  he  could  not 
leave  her  for  long.  He  had  assumed  an  obli- 
gation that  he  could  not  disavow.  Not  that 
it  was  a  task,  either.  And  he  did  not  deny  to 

72 


Disturbing  Possibilities 


himself  that  she  was  strangely  winning,  and  in 
her  weakness  made  a  powerful  appeal  to  his 
strength.  He  was  growing  used  to  being  nec- 
essary to  her.  It  was  becoming  natural  to 
take  the  first  place  in  the  care  of  her;  to  have 
the  others  yield  it  to  him,  and  to  feel  that  new 
and  odd  tenderness — something  he  never  had 
felt  in  his  life  before — when  she  smiled  her 
thanks  at  him,  or  held  him  close  in  her  child- 
like affection. 

Just  how  he  might  feel  with  her  innocent 
personality  suddenly  withdrawn,  he  did  not 
know,  nor  did  he  care  to  think.  There  was 
one  thing  certain;  it  was  growing  constantly 
harder  for  him  to  realize  that  she  was  unreal ; 
the  consistency  of  her  behavior,  of  her  every 
act  and  expressed  thought,  so  made  for  an  ac- 
tual individuality — for  an  actual  Edith.  Im- 
agination failed  to  transform  her  into  the 
phantom  that  he  had  been  told  she  really  was. 
It  was  an  impossibility  to  picture  her  to  him- 
self how  she  might  seem  as  Carmen. 

Once  his  absorption  in  this  train  of  reflec- 
tion led  him  unwittingly  to  utter  the  name ;  he 

73 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


was  looking  directly  at  her  at  the  time,  but 
unseeingly. 

"Carmen!"  he  muttered. 

She  smiled.  "Jack!"  she  chided  gently. 
"Don't  you  get  the  habit  too.  I  don't  like  to 
be  teased." 

He  quickly  recovered  himself  and  apolo- 
gized somewhat  incoherently;  but,  on  his 
promise  not  to  repeat  the  lapse,  she  dismissed 
it  as  of  no  consequence. 

He  put  a  hand  around  her  elbow. 

"Let  us  walk  awhile,"  he  suggested,  help- 
ing her  to  rise.  She  responded  obediently. 
Unconsciously  his  grasp  tightened,  at  which 
she  glanced  up  at  him  with  a  laugh. 

"You  don't  mean  that  I  shall  get  away?" 

It  came  to  him  what  he  was  doing  and  he 
immediately  loosened  his  hold. 

"Excuse  me,"  he  begged. 

"No  excuse  needed.  I  like  that  grip  of 
yours.  It  makes  me  feel  as  if  I  'was  yours, 
and  could  n't  be  lost  from  you  again." 

"Thank  you,  dear." 

She  had  said  such  things  before,  and  he  had 

74 


Disturbing  Possibilities 


answered  almost  in  the  same  words,  but  this 
time  he  spoke  low,  and  covered  a  faint  tremor 
in  his  voice. 

From  this  on,  till  they  arrived  at  London, 
the  strange  conditions  did  not  change.  There 
were  times  when  Edith  was  a  little  moody, 
and  one  day  she  was  distinctly  cross,  but  be- 
yond this  she  maintained  consistently  her 
personality.  She  made  a  good  deal  of  mu- 
sic, and  at  such  times  generally  wanted  Hamil 
with  her,  but  now  and  then  she  slipped  away 
by  herself,  and  apparently  preferred  to  be 
alone.  Whenever  she  was  cross  she  dealt 
more  lightly  with  Hamil  than  with  any  of 
the  others,  though  she  was  a  bit  peevish  even 
with  him.  Of  course  he  made  nothing  of  it, 
though  for  an  instant  it  took  him  a  little  aback, 
which  showed  once  more  how  seriously  he 
was  taking  her. 

One  morning  when  he  appeared  on  deck, 
she  came  to  him  and  took  his  arm. 

"As  we  are  walking,"  she  said,  "I  will  ease 
my  conscience.  I  was  a  spitting  cat  yester- 
day. Will  you  forgive  me?" 

75 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


"There  is  nothing  on  my  books  against 
you,"  he  laughingly  answered.  He  tucked 
her  hand  farther  under  his  arm,  and  in  doing 
so  patted  it.  "Everything  is  all  right,  dear." 

"Good  in  you,  Jack — ever  so  good,"  she 
said  gratefully.  "But  then  you  were  always 
the  soul  of  patience." 

"Don't  praise  me  too  much,"  he  protested, 
"you  may  spoil  me." 

"No  danger.  Have  n't  I  tried  you  long 
enough  to  know?"  She  smiled  up  at  him  tri- 
umphantly. "And  it  has  now  been — let  me 
see — how  absurd!  I  can't  exactly  tell.  Ever 
since  my  sickness  some  things  have  been  con- 
fused. Never  mind.  You  know  I  have 
tested  you." 

"Oh,  well,  I  won't  contend  with  you,"  he 
said.  "After  breakfast  shall  we  have  some 
music?  Can't  you  surprise  me  with  some 
more  old  wine  in  old  wineskins?  You  know 
you  have  already  given  me  some  unaltered 
things  from  Bach.  By  the  way,  how  is  it  that 
you  know  the  old  music?" 

He  did  not  think  that  he  was  running  a  risk 


Disturbing  Possibilities 


to  say  this,  for  he  supposed  that  she  would  be 
no  clearer  about  one  old  matter  of  the  past 
than  another.  As  for  the  mention  of  her  un- 
usual rendering  of  the  original  music  of  Bach, 
he  thought  that  she  had  probably  forgotten 
their  former  talk,  and  might  now  suppose  that 
she  herself  had  pointed  it  out. 

But  it  was  here  that  he  got  a  little  surprise. 
She  looked  up  at  him  quickly,  and  with  puck- 
ered brows. 

"Why,  what  do  you  mean?  You  know  I 
did  Bach  with  old  Brundergurg,  who  would 
have  fainted  at  any  but  the  ancient  music. 
And  say,  how  did  you  know  it  was  the  old 
music?  I  am  sure  I  didn't  speak  of  it? 
Have  you  been  using  the  time  of  your  ab- 
sence to  gather  in  the  old  masters?" 

He  made  the  best  of  it,  and  laughingly  put 
up  a  protesting  hand. 

"No !  no !  of  course  I  have  n't.  You  know 
that  I  have  not  had  time,  and  never  had  the 
brains.  As  for  what  I  know  about  Bach,  it  is 
all  but  nil.  Only  I  did  happen  to  hear  the 
matter  of  the  old  music  discussed,  and  some 

77 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


fugues  were  used  to  illustrate.  The  music 
itself  sort  of  stuck  in  my  mind." 

"Good  for  you!"  She  clapped  him  on  the 
arm.  "It  was  wonderful  for  Jack  Beau- 
champ  to  remember  that." 

"Another  bouquet,  and  thank  you." 

But,  in  fact,  he  was  glad  to  be  out  of  the 
little  scrape.  He  had  found  out  now  that 
it  was  dangerous  to  mark  out  exact  bounds, 
either  for  her  memory  or  her  observation. 

Their  stay  in  London  was  brief  and  when 
they  sailed  for  the  United  States  Hamil  rec- 
onciled Edith  to  the  brief  parting  which  was 
to  follow  their  arrival.  He  was  to  stay  for 
a  short  time  in  New  York,  while  they  went 
to  Newark,  and  was  to  join  them  at  the  is- 
land. 

As  the  steamer  turned  her  nose  westward, 
Hamil  felt  that  the  first  act  of  the  strange 
play  was  over.  He  had  sometimes  thought 
of  it  as  a  farce;  but  it  was  growing  to  be  some- 
thing more — vastly  and  profoundly  more. 


CHAPTER  VI 

MORE  KNIGHT-ERRANTRY 

THE  sane  uniformity  of  Edith's  conduct, 
which,  oddly  enough,  had  already 
made  Hamil's  task  in  a  way  difficult — 
to  keep  in  mind  that  he  was  dealing  with  an 
unreal  person — continued  during  the  rest  of 
the  voyage.  At  New  York,  following  their 
plan,  Hamil  for  the  time  left  them,  and  the 
others  took  train  for  home.  At  the  last  mo- 
ment Edith  was  uneasy,  and  seemed  a  little 
suspicious  and  distrustful,  but  Hamil  man- 
aged to  quiet  her.  He  promised  once  more 
to  join  her  very  soon,  and  said  it  with  such 
earnestness,  and  such  an  honest  look  into  her 
eyes,  that  she  convincedly,  though  rather 
dolefully,  smiled. 

"Oh,  well,  I  must  believe  you,  then,"  she 
relieved  him  by  answering.  "Only,  it 
must  n't  be  for  long." 

79 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


"It  shan't  be.  I  will  rush  my  business 
through,  and  take  the  very  next  train." 

He  said  this  with  such  emphasis  that  he 
rather  surprised  himself. 

"Then  kiss  me,  and  go.  The  sooner  you 
start,  the  sooner  you  will  have  that  odious 
business  over  with." 

They  were  in  a  sort  of  little  nook  by  them- 
selves, partly  walled  in  by  baggage.  The 
others  had  left  them  for  a  moment.  He  took 
her  face  tenderly  in  his  hands. 

"Good-by  for  a  short  while,  dear.  God 
bless  you!" 

He  stoope'd  and  kissed  her.  She  caught  his 
hands  impulsively  in  hers. 

"Honestly,  Jack,  are  you  going  to  miss 
me?"  There  was  a  sudden  darkening,  as  of 
tears,  in  the  uplifted  and  inquiring  eyes. 

"Am  I — ?"  He  stopped.  His  own  eyes 
intensified  before  hers.  "Why  do  you  ask 
that?  Don't  you  know?" 

"I  hope  so,  but  I  could  n't  be  satisfied  till 
once,  and  though  they  all  said  it  was  best, 
you  said  it.  You  see,  dear,  you  did  go  away 

80 


More  Knight-Errantry 


and  that  my  nervous  state — but  Jet  that  go 
now.  All  T  want  to  feel  sure  of  is  that  it 
won't  happen  again." 

"It  shan't.     Edith,  I  swear  that  it  shan't." 

The  impending  sad  shower  turned  to  sun- 
shine again.  She  laughed. 

"That  ought  to  convince  anybody.  Not 
but  that  I  believed  you  before." 

"Edith,"  he  said,  and  his  face  lighted  as 
with  a  sudden  new  thought,  "I  want  you  to 
promise  me  something.  Listen,  now,  for  it 
may  mean  a  good  deal."  He  spoke  with  im- 
pressive earnestness. 

"Whatever  may  happen  in  the  future,  you 
will  not  blame  me  for  what  I  have  said  and 
done  lately,  and  what  I  may  say  and  do  to  the 
same  general  purport,  after  this?" 

Her  eyes  expanded  a  bit  with  surprise. 
She  looked  just  a  trifle  dismayed. 

"Why,  what  sort  of  serious  and  dreadfully 
solemn  thing  do  you  mean?  You  are  very 
nigh  giving  me  the  shivers!  Yes,  of  course 
I  '11  promise  that,  or  anything  else  you  ask, 
but  I  don't  at  all  understand." 
6  81 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


"But  you  may  later,  dear."  He  passed  a 
hand  soothingly  and  caressingly  over  her  hair. 
"And  I  want  you  also  to  remember  this,"  he 
went  on:  "I  am  doing  what  I  believe  the  sit- 
uation calls  for,  but  it  may  not  be  the  best 
that  could  be  done.  Some  things  have  been 
hard  for  me,  and  in  more  than  one  way.  If 
you  want  to  know  all  about  it  sometime  I  will 
tell  you." 

"Jack,"  she  cried,  positively  losing  color, 
and  looking  big-eyed  into  his  serious  face, 
"what  do  you  mean?  You  frighten  me! 
What  has  happened,  or  is  going  to  happen, 
that  you  need  to  talk  so?  After  all  you  have 
said  and  promised,  you  can't  mean  to  go  away 
again.  Then  what  is  it?  Tell  me,  in- 
stantly." 

He  bit  his  lip,  as  if  vexed  with  himself,  but 
the  next  instant,  meeting  her  troubled  eyes, 
laughed.  He  took  her  chin  in  his  hand. 

"You  are  off  your  course.  Come  back. 
Everything  is  all  right,  and  I  did  n't  mean 
anything  that  had  a  dark  and  dreadful  intent. 

82 


More  Knight-Errantry 


It  was  only  an  innocent  something  that  you 
may  wish  to  consider  later.  Now,  don't  think 
any  more  about  it.  There  is  only  a  little  while 
before  my  train-time,  and  let 's  improve  it  by 
cheerful  talk.  Remember,  when  you  get  on 
that  island,  have  a  full  ice  chest.  I  am  bound 
to  be  as  hungry  as  a  shark." 

She  brightened,  and  promised.  And  so  He 
got  her  away  from  the  dubious  subject. 
Whether,  as  Carmen,  she  would  be  able  to 
recall  the  scene  was  of  course  a  matter  of  con- 
jecture. 

At  the  last  moment,  as  he  was  about  to 
board  his  train,  they  all  shook  hands  with 
him,  and  Edith  put  up  her  lips  for  a  final 
kiss.  "That  other  did  n't  count,"  she  said  in- 
nocently. 

Hamil  laughed  in  spite  of  a  little  inward 
embarrassment. 

"Certainly  not,"  he  unshrinkingly  avowed. 
"Good-by!  Good-by,  all!  See  you  on  Le 
Bijou." 

"Don't  forget  to  wire  us,  so  we  can  meet 

83 


'The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


you  with  the  launch,"  at  the  very  last  moment 
called  out  Edith.  "The  wire  goes  to  Seal 
Harbor,  remember." 

"I  am  not  in  the  least  danger  of  forgetting," 
he  answered.  There  was  a  suggestive  em- 
phasis in  the  way  he  spoke  that  he  was  willing 
should  please  and  cheer  her. 

He  waved  his  handkerchief  to  her  from  the 
platform  of  the  car,  as  he  saw  her  standing 
where  he  had  left  her,  and  looking,  as  it 
seemed,  lonesomely  after  him.  She  re- 
sponded with  her  handkerchief,  and  they  kept 
this  up  till  the  train  rounded  a  curve.  It 
was  with  a  queer  and  new  sense  of  disquiet, 
and  of  something  missing,  that  Hamil  at  last 
settled  down  inside  the  car. 

He  made  short  work  of  his  business  in  New 
York,  and  two  days  later  sent  the  promised 
message,  and  started.  The  message  came 
very  near  to  being  sentimental,  but  at  the  last 
moment  he  restrained  himself,  having  discre- 
tion in  mind.  There  were  others  besides 
Edith  and  himself  to  think  of.  This  was  what 
he  finally  wrote : 


More  Knight-Errantry 


Shall  reach  Seal  Harbor  at  5  p.  m.,  June  20.    JACK. 

Well,  it  was  at  least  a  little  compensation 
that  he  felt  it  reasonable  to  sign  in  this  way, 
for  any  other  would  seem  strange  to  Edith. 
He  even  smiled  at  the  bit  of  advantage  that 
he  was  thus  able  to  take. 

On  the  last  stage  of  the  journey,  which  was 
on  the  little  steamer,  he  was  much  on  deck, 
and  walked  a  great  deal.  When  finally  the 
landing  at  Seal  Harbor  came  in  sight  he 
stopped  at  the  rail,  and  continued  there  till 
things  on  shore  took  on  more  understandable 
shape.  There  was  something  of  a  gathering 
on  the  wharf,  and  Hamil  did  his  best  in  try- 
ing to  bring  features  and  individuality  out  of 
the  white  patches  that  at  first  stood  for  faces. 
At  last  he  was  able  to  get  a  little  defmiteness, 
and  then  more,  and  the  somewhat  crowded 
figures  at  the  same  time  cut  definable  shapes. 
But  there  was  no  face  or  form  that  he  was 
looking  for.  Not  only  was  there  no  Edith, 
but  there  was  no  one  else  of  her  party. 

It  must  be  that  something  had  detained  her, 
and  though  his  face  sobered  under  the  disap- 

85 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


pointment  he  summoned  a  bit  of  his  pluck  and 
optimism,  and  went  back  to  make  sure  of  his 
baggage.  After  landing  he  took  a  turn  about 
the  wharf;  but  though  two  launches  mean- 
while came  in,  neither  brought  any  of  the  Mc- 
Allister party.  He  thought  again  that  per- 
haps some  commonplace  accident  was  the  mat- 
ter, and  let  out  his  patience  another  hitch, 
though  now  he  was  really  on  the  verge  of  fret- 
ting. The  whole  thing  was  more  of  a  strain 
than  he  could  have  imagined,  and  this,  of 
itself,  as  he  came  to  realize  it,  brought  a 
twinge  of  humiliation.  There  was  no  need  of 
going  to  silly  lengths  in  this  business,  how- 
ever piquantly-fascinating  it  was,  and  least  of 
all  he  could  not  afford  to  be  childish.  He 
would  n't  be,  either,  but  would  quietly  sit 
down  somewhere,  and  read  his  newspaper. 
It  would  be  scandalous  if  he  could  n't  muster 
sense  enough  for  that. 

He  crossed  to  a  pile  of  lumber,  and  dump- 
ing his  overcoat  on  a  plank,  made  an  elbow- 
rest  of  it.  Then,  having  resolutely  done  so 
much,  he  permitted  himself  a  little  conces- 

86 


More  Knight-Errantry 


sion,  and  took  another  long  and  careful  look 
seaward. 

The  low  westerly  sun  threw  a  back-slant 
that  edged  the  eastern  sea-brim  with  a  steely 
glitter,  and  it  was  not  easy  to  be  sure  of  any- 
thing that  Hamil  could  make  out  looked  like 
a  boat.  A  sea-bird  flickered,  and  sweepingly 
flashed  out  white,  and  then  turned  a  dark  edge 
again,  and  in  one  quarter  a  fixed  blue-black 
hummock,  meaning  an  outlying  island,  cut 
the  sea-brim,  but  this  was  all. 

Coming  down  to  his  paper,  once  more,  he 
was  about  settling  himself  to  read  when  he 
noticed  a  woman  rather  near  him.  He  had 
previously  seen  her  on  the  boat,  and  had  ob- 
served her  then  with  a  little  passing  interest. 
She  was  rather  small,  but  was  gracefully 
straight  and  upright,  and  had  almost  a  fash- 
ion-plate figure.  Her  fine  hair  was  nearly 
a  white-yellow,  her  eyebrows  and  long  eye- 
lashes were  darker,  and  she  had  a  sweet,  art- 
less sort  of  face.  Her  clothes,  nevertheless, 
showed  sophistication,  foi  though  they  were 
plain,  they  bore  the  mark  of  metropolitan 

87 


The  Girl  With   Two  Selves 


fashion,  and  revealed  daintiness,  along  with 
their  simplicity.  The  shirt-waist  was  of  fine, 
tawny  linen,  with  a  rolling  collar,  giving  the 
chance  for  a  blue  four-in-hand,  while  the 
skirt  was  dark  blue,  and  just  short  enough  to 
show  half  of  the  substantial,  small  outing 
boots.  Her  hat  was  not  over-large,  and  was 
becoming  to  her,  though  it  took  the  steadying 
of  a  little  ringed  hand  once  in  a  while  to  hold 
it  against  the  breeze. 

She  had  the  burden  of  a  shopping  bag,  an'd 
of  a  sun  umbrella,  and  she  had  tossed  a  blue 
loose-coat  on  some  of  her  baggage. 

It  was  hardly  in  human  nature — a  man's  na- 
ture— to  ignore  unqualifiedly  such  a  dainty 
bit  of  flesh  and  blood,  and  Hamil,  who  had 
lost  sight  of  her  on  the  boat,  did  not  dismiss 
her  summarily  from  his  observation  now.  In 
fact  he  took  time  to  complete  his  earlier  ob- 
servations. An  author,  speaking  of  his  fellow 
male  creatures,  has  said:  "A  man  may  love 
one  woman  with  the  warmth  of  a  simoon,  and 
at  the  same  time  feel  a  good  healthy  south 
wind  towards  a  dozen  others."  This  may  ex- 


More  Knight-Errantry 


plain — except  that  it  overstates — Hamil's  re- 
newed interest  in  the  attractive  young  woman, 
impatient  as  he  was  even  to  an  extent  which 
surprised  himself,  to  see  Edith  again. 

But  at  this  point,  as  he  was  letting  himself 
look  at  her,  she  glanced  at  him.  She  caught 
him  fairly  in  his  little  stare,  and  her  innocent 
blue  eyes  expanded  a  trifle.  Then  she  slightly 
frowned,  and  turned  away. 

Hamil  sniffed  vexedly  and  disapprovingly 
at  himself,  and  squared  around  to  the  neg- 
lected paper. 

Perhaps  ten  minutes  later  he  looked  up, 
and  found  that  almost  everybody  had  left  the 
wharf.  An  official  of  the  boat  company  was 
locking  up  some  baggage  in  a  storehouse,  and 
the  young  lady  was  at  the  farther  wharf -side; 
otherwise,  two  young  men  who  looked  like 
dressed-up  fishermen  were  the  only  persons  in 
sight. 

He  thought  he  would  look  again  for  the 
launch,  and  got  up,  tossing  away  the  paper. 
At  the  same  time  the  two  young  men  came 
along,  one  awkwardly  lighting  a  cigar.  His 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


black  soft  hat  was  tipped  to  the  back  of  his 
head,  and  he  walked  unsteadily.  The  other 
man  was  deeply  flushed,  but  walked  well,  and, 
at  least,  was  not  so  drunk  as  his  companion. 
The  two  headed  at  first  in  the  direction  of  the 
girl,  but  finally  veered,  and  stopped  at  a  pile. 
The  drunken  man  found  this  convenient  for 
support,  and  at  last  got  his  cigar  into  action. 
The  other  turned  his  attention  to  something  in 
a  pocket.  Presently  he  dug  out  a  clay  pipe, 
which  he  leisurely  filled,  looking  once  more 
at  the  girl,  who,  facing  the  other  way,  did  not 
see  him.  When  he  had  jammed  the  tobacco 
down  with  his  finger  he  reached  out  his  hand 
for  his  friend's  cigar.  The  man  did  not  hap- 
pen to  notice  him,  whereat  the  man  of  the 
pipe  swore  roundly. 

"Give  me  a  light,  will  ye?"  he  wound  up. 
"What  kind  of  a  drunken  doper  be  ye?" 

At  this  the  girl  looked  around  and  Hamil 
turned  to  see  whether  the  wharf  official  was 
still  there;  but  he  had  gone.  As  he  turned 
back  the  girl  was  looking  towards  him  and  he 
walked  slowly  her  way. 

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The  swearer  had  meantime  got  his  light, 
and  was  puffing  at  his  pipe.  Soon  he  felt 
again  in  a  pocket  of  his  ready-made  black 
coat,  and  this  time  fished  out  a  paper  bag. 
He  untwisted  the  mouth  of  it,  and  walked 
over  to  the  girl. 

"Won't  ye  have  some  kisses?  I  guess  they 
ain't  up  to  the  real  ones,  but  I  think  mebby 
they  're  sweet." 

"No,  I  thank  you,"  she  said.  She  instinc- 
tively backed  away  a  step. 

The  man  did  not  have  a  bad  face,  but  it 
was  big,  mahogany  brown,  spiky  with  a  three- 
days'  beard,  and  the  eyes  were  swimmingly 
watery. 

"Oh,  wal,  that's  all  right,"  he  grumbled. 
"Ye  need  n't  have  any  if  ye  don't  want  to. 
All  the  same,  they  ain't  too  bad,  for  I  sam- 
pled 'em." 

By  this  time  Hamil  was  pretty  close.  The 
girl  indicated  his  coming  by  looking  that  way, 
and  the  man  glanced  around  and  saw  him. 

Hamil  tried  to  look  serene,  and  as  if  he 
had  not  come  for  any  particular  purpose — 

91 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


doing  so  to  avoid  trouble,  for  he  thought  the 
man  might  take  the  freak  to  round  on  him. 
So  he  did,  wheeling  fully  around,  his  red  and 
relaxed  lips  coming  together,  and  his  watery 
eyes  steadying. 

"What  do  you  want?     Come  to  butt  in?" 

"Oh,  no,"  said  Hamil  pleasantly.  "I 
merely  took  the  notion  to  walk  this  way.  It 
is  a  public  place,  I  suppose." 

"Mebby  it  is,  and  so  's  the  rest  of  it.  Go 
and  try  it.  I  ain't  goin'  to  have  anybody  but- 
tin'  in  when  I  am  holdin'  a  conversation." 

Hamil  turned  to  the  girl.  She  had  lost 
color,  and  was  looking  appealingly  at  him. 

"Perhaps  you  had  better  go,"  she  said.  "I 
— I  don't  think  this  gentleman  means  any 
harm,  and — " 

"You  bet  your  sweet  life  I  don't  1"  he  broke 
in.  "And  if  I  want  to  talk  to  a  girl  I  am 
goin'  to,  and  that 's  straight  dope. — Now  Mr. 
Man,  you  jest  light  out,  or  we  '11  have  trouble 
right  away." 

Hamil  did  not  look  at  him,  except  for  a 
moment.  He  said  composedly  to  her: 

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More  Knight-Errantry 


"I  suppose  there  was  no  real  need  of  my 
taking  a  hand,  but  I  thought  he  was  a  little 
coarse  and  rough.  Now  that  I  am  in  I  shall 
stay.  Perhaps  he  '11  have  sense  enough  to 
drop  the  foolishness  here.  If  not  he  must 
take  the  consequences."  He  turned  once 
more  to  the  man.  This  time,  there  was  a 
sparkle  in  his  black  eyes,  and  a  faint  show  of 
a  lump  at  each  of  his  square  jaws.  He  spoke 
with  crisp  directness. 

"Will  you  go  away,  and  mind  your  busi- 
ness, or  not?" 

The  man  looked  a  little  surprised,  for  the 
change  in  Hamil's  look  and  tone  was  de- 
cidedly radical.  Yet  it  could  not  truly  be 
said  that  he  hesitated.  As  if  from  habit,  he 
gave  his  trousers  a  hitch,  and  walked  out  into 
the  wharf.  Near  the  corner  of  a  pile  of 
boards  he  stopped. 

"Jest  come  over  behind  these  boards,  and 
we  '11  fix  things." 

Hamil  smiled;  but  before  answering  looked 
at  the  other  man.  The  fellow  had  evidently 
got  some  idea  of  the  trouble  into  his  head,  and 

93 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


had  just  pushed  out  from  his  pile.  He  was 
fumbling  in  a  hip  pocket. 

"I  thought  something  of  that  kind  might 
happen,"  Hamil  said  quietly  to  her.  "I  will 
take  away  his  gun,  if  that  is  what  he  has,  and 
then  accommodate  the  other  party." 

Before  she  could  answer,  he  whipped  off 
his  coat,  and  started  at  a  light  walk  for  what 
might  prove  to  be  the  armed  force.  As  he 
got  near  the  man  jerked  his  hand  clear  of  his 
pocket,  and  there,  truly  enough,  was  nested 
a  little  revolver. 

The  girl  cried  out,  but  there  was  no  need. 
Hamil  suddenly  made  a  dart — amazingly 
quick  for  so  big  a  man — and  before  the  pistol 
could  be  aimed,  his  hand  shot  in  and  clasped 
the  wrist.  There  was  some  movement  or 
other,  the  man  shouted  out  in  pain,  and  then 
Hamil,  pistol  in  hand,  was  walking  back. 

"On  the  whole,"  he  said  as  he  came  up,  "we 
had  better  make  a  safe  deposit  of  this." 

He  flung  it  into  the  water. 

"Now,  my  other  friend.  Excuse  me  for 
keeping  you  waiting." 

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More  Knight-Errantry 


The  challenger  had  come  forward  a  few 
steps,  but  stopped  with  this.  If  he  had  be- 
gun to  think  he  had  made  a  mistake,  he  did 
not  show  it.  Instead,  he  threw  off  his  coat, 
and  walked  out  of  sight  behind  the  pile. 

"Oh,  don't  go  there!"  intervened  the  girl 
at  this  point.  "Don't  fight.  Let 's  go  away. 
I  don't  believe  they  will  follow  us  if  we  go 
up  to  that  house.  You  can  send  for  an  officer 
then." 

"There  won't  be  much  of  a  fight,"  laughed 
Hamil.  It  was  n't  exactly  a  pleasant  laughr 
to  be  precise  about  it.  The  prehistoric  man 
was  somewhat  in  evidence. 

He  took  off  his  hat,  tipping  it  to  her  po- 
litely before  he  parted  with  it,  and  when  he 
had  laid  it  carefully  with  his  coat,  he  crossed 
over,  and  turned  the  corner  of  the  board- 
pile. 


CHAPTER  VII 

DISCONCERTING  DISCLOSURES 

THE  girl  drew  a  sharp,  excited  breath, 
and  as  she  could  not  see  what  was  go- 
ing on,  sat  down  on  the  heel  of  a  pile, 
and  nervously  listened. 

Judging  as  a  woman  ordinarily  would 
judge,  Hamil  had  no  particular  reason  for 
what  seemed  his  absolute  confidence.  True, 
he  was  a  head  taller  than  his  adversary,  who 
was,  in  fact,  rather  short,  but  he  did  not  seem 
greatly  to  outweigh  him,  for  the  man  must 
scale  nearly  two  hundred  pounds.  The  fel- 
low, besides  that,  seemed  to  be  hard  in  flesh, 
tough,  and  appeared  to  have  no  disadvantage 
in  years  or  strength,  and  looked  as  young  as 
Hamil. 

But  at  least,  the  suspense  did  not  last  long. 
She  heard  a  little  sound  like  scuffling,  the 
man  swore,  and  she  thought  Hamil  laughed, 

96 


Disconcerting  Disclosures 


and  then  everything  was  quiet.     She  started 
up,  and  as  she  did  so  Hamil  called  to  her. 

"Yes,"  she  excitedly  answered;  and  she 
made  a  dart  of  it  to  the  boards,  and  turned 
the  corner.  She  had  already  taken  it  for 
granted  that  Hamil  had  won. 

It  proved  so,  for  he  was  sitting  astride  his 
opponent,  who  was  flat  on  his  back,  with  both 
arms  spread  out.  Hamil  was  kneeling  on  the 
arms. 

No  blood  showed  on  either  man,  and  it 
looked  as  if  it  had  been  all  settled  at  a  dash. 

"I  am  sorry  to  bother  you,"  Hamil  said 
composedly,  "but  this  gentleman  has  some- 
thing stubborn  in  his  nature,  and  will  not 
give  up.  Therefore,  I  am  going  to  tie  him. 
It  will  help  me  if  you  will  kindly  slip  the 
cords  from  those  loose  clapboards,  and  hand 
them  to  me." 

He  nodded  with  his  head,  to  indicate  where 
the  boards  were. 

"Oh,  yes,"  she  responded  at  once.     "I  am 
awfully  glad  you  did  n't  have  to  hurt  him,  and 
did  n't  get  hurt,"  she  added. 
7  97 


The  Girl  With  Tisoo  Selves 


But  before  she  could  start  the  man  himself 
spoke  up. 

"What  you  goin'  to  do  with  me?"  He  sul- 
lenly asked. 

"Tie  you  to  a  pile,  and  send  for  a  con- 
stable," Hamil  answered  promptly.  "I  '11 
take  your  friend  along,"  he  explained  further, 
"and  then  he  can't  untie  you,  nor  get  himself 
into  any  more  trouble." 

"It's  all  off,"  he  growleH.  "Let  me  up, 
and  Jim  and  me  will  light  out.  I  Ve  got  some 
folks  that  are  sick,  and  I  don't  want  'em  to 
worry.  They  '11  do  all  kinds  of  stunts  at  yel- 
lin'  if  I  'm  'rested." 

Hamil  instantly  jumped  up. 

"I  '11  take  you  at  your  word.  Go  ahead, 
and  make  yourself  scarce.  You  're  not  fit  to 
be  around  here,  for  you  're  just  drunk  enough 
to  be  ugly.  Take  the  other  fellow  along  with 
you.  He  '11  have  a  lame  arm  for  a  while 
where  I  twisted  it,  but  that  was  his  own  fault. 
Drunken  men  can't  be  trusted  with  guns." 

The  man  glumly  unrolled  his  sleeves,  and 
covered  his  great  hairy  arms.  Silently,  too, 


Disconcerting  Disclosures 


he  put  on  his  vest.  The  girl  noticed  that 
Hamil  had  not  taken  off  his. 

Hamil  said  no  more,  and  the  man,  not 
looking  again  at  either  of  them,  walked  off. 

Hamil  waited  a  little  before  going  to  pick 
up  his  coat,  for  what  reason  the  girl  could 
not  at  the  time  see. 

"He 's  a  plucky  brute,  after  all,"  Hamil 
commented,  as  now  they  saw  the  fighter  and 
the  other  man  slouching  off. 

Now  she  understood  what  the  little  delay 
in  following  the  defeated  fighter  had  meant. 
Hamil  would  not  humiliate  him  by  seeming 
to  dog  him  out,  and  she  glanced  at  her  pro- 
tector approvingly. 

"What  I  am  thinking  the  most  of,"  she 
said,  "is  that  you  got  out  of  the  trouble  so 
well.  He  looked  like  a  strong  fellow,  and  in 
spite  of  your  size,  I  was  afraid  he  would  be 
too  much  for  you." 

"Well,  you  see  he  was  n't,"  he  returned, 
smiling. 

"You  must  be  extremely  powerful,"  she 
admiringly  and  almost  awesomely  commented 

99 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


as  she  looked  from  her  little  height  up  to  his 
great  one,  and  seemed  to  be  struck  with  the 
almost  absurd  contrast. 

But  he  did  not  appear  to  be  noticing  that, 
and  was,  in  fact,  listening,  rather  than  observ- 
ing. Again  the  cave  man  stirred  a  little 
within  him,  noting  her  praise  of  his  physical 
might.  So  must  our  ancient  sires  have  been 
moved  after  laying  down  victorious  club  or 
spear,  and  hearkening — perhaps  pretending 
not  to  hear — the  admiring  gutturals  of  the 
cave  wives.  "Oh,  yes,  I  am  strong,"  he  mod- 
estly answered,  "though,  to  be  sure,  that  is  n't 
all  there  is  to  righting.  Knowing  how  to  han- 
dle yourself  is  a  big  item." 

By  this  time  they  were  well  out  in  tHe 
wharf,  and  as  they  had  no  purpose  in  going 
farther,  they  slowly  came  to  a  halt  and  faced 
around,  so  that  they  had  a  complete  range  of 
the  water,  both,  as  if  coming  back  suddenly 
to  a  matter  for  a  moment  forgotten,  looked 
quickly  and  searchingly  seaward. 

A  launch  was  coming  into  the  harbor,  and 
there  was  a  white  boiling  of  water  at  her  bows. 

100 


Disconcerting  Disclosures 


She  seemed  to  be  approaching  at  driving 
speed. 

"Oh,  perhaps  those  are  my  friends!"  the 
girl  broke  out.  "I  was  fearing  that  they  were 
not  coming.  They  have  turned  from  the 
right  direction,  for  Mr.  McAllister's  island 
is  off  there." 

"'McAllister's!'"  echoed  Hamil,  "why  I 
am  waiting  for  McAllister's  launch." 

"You  are?"  She  was  not  only  surprised, 
but  paid  him  the  compliment  of  seeming 
gratified.  "Then  you  are  one  of  the  guests. 
I  knew  there  were  to  be  several." 

"Not  exactly  a  guest,"  he  corrected, 
"though — but  I  have  n't  time  to  explain  about 
that  now.  If  you  don't  mind  I  will  introduce 
myself.  Or  I  have  a  card." 

He  clapped  his  hand  hastily  in  his  pocket, 
took  out  his  pocket-book,  and  after  some 
fumbling  whisked  out  a  card. 

She  looked  at  it. 

"Mr.  Hamil — Oh,  are  you  one  of  the  New- 
ark Hamils?  No,  I  don't  mean  those  that 
live  there,  but  who  live  in  New  York,  and 

101 .1 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


own  a  good  deal  of  property  in  Newark?  An 
aunt  of  mine — the  one  that  was  the  cause  of 
my  knowing  Bessie  McAllister — she  used 
to  visit—" 

But  she  halted  at  this  point,  puzzled  at 
Hamil's  peculiar  look.  It  was  almost  blank, 
and  he  scarcely  seemed  to  hear  her. 

"Pardon  me!"  he  said  suddenly  collecting 
himself,  "but  this  is  a  mess!  I  mean  that  giv- 
ing you  that  card  has  tangled  me  up.  I  got 
hold  of  the  wrong  one.  I  had  some  others 
printed,  but  I  must  have  put  them  in  a  differ- 
ent place.  Miss — I  don't  know  your  name — 
I  want  you  to  do  me  a  favor.  Destroy  that 
card,  and  consider  that  I  am  Jack  Beau- 
champ.  Wait;  I  will  find  a  card  with  that 
on  it." 

He  took  out  his  pocket-book  again,  Hut  be- 
fore he  could  find  the  right  card  she  was 
answering. 

"Of  course  I  don't  understand,  but  tell 
me  this!  You  really  are  Mr.  Hamil,  aren't 
you?" 

For  an  instant  he  hesitated.     Possibly  he 

J02, 


Disconcerting  Disclosures 


might  mend  matters  by  a  prompt  bit  of  de- 
ception. Yet  on  the  other  hand,  he  had  al- 
ready gone  far  in  the  other  direction,  and 
then,  he  was  a  little  tired  even  of  the  first 
well-meant  bit  of  trickery.  He  brought  out 
the  other  card,  and  while  he  was  doing  it  de- 
cided. 

"Here 's  the  card.  It  lies,  for  my  name  is 
really  Hamil.  But  the  McAllisters  think  it 
is — no,  the  dickens,  they  don't — they  think 
it  is  Dana.  I  shall  make  you  crazy,  if  I  keep 
on!  Listen.  I  am  Jack  Dana  to  all  of  the 
McAllisters  but  Edith,  and  I  am  Jack  Beau- 
champ  to  her.  It  is  all  right — everything  is 
all  right,  and  I  can  prove  it  to  you  the  first 
time  I  have  a  chance.  Now,  will  you  wait? 
Will  you  for  the  present  call  me  Dana,  ex- 
cept to  Edith?  Remember,  I  am  Jack  Beau- 
champ  to  her." 

The  girl  had  grown  serious.  Yet  she 
seemed  to  be  impressed  by  his  apparent  frank- 
ness and  outright  way.  She  finally  said,  with 
a  little  hesitation : 

"Yes,  I  will  do  that.  I  will  trust  you,  and 
103 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


give  you  the  chance.     I  don't  see  how  it  can 
do  any  harm.     But  there  is  one  thing." 

"Yes."  i 

"You  seem  to  be  a  close  friend  of  the  fam- 
ily, and  being  so  you  must  know  that  Miss 
McAllister's  name  is  not  Edith,  but  Carmen, 
yet  you  call  her  Edith?  Will  you  tell  me 
why  you  do  so?  I  don't  understand  that  it  is 
any  part  of  her  real  name,  but  is  only  one  that 
at  times  when  she  is  n't  just  right  in  her  mind 
she  imagines  is  hers." 

"I  can't  exactly  answer  you  without  going 
into  the  other  things,"  Hamil  said,  "but  I  will 
explain  that  she  has  been  in  this  cloud  through 
the  whole  time  that  I  have  known  her,  and 
that  she  has  insisted  that  all  those  around  her 
shall  call  her  'Edith.7  My  relations  with  the 
family  are  such  that  I  have  been  a  great  deal 
in  her  company,  and  naturally  have  called  her 
what  the  others  have." 

"Thank  you.  Please  excuse  me  if  I  have 
been  too  inquisitive." 

"It  is  all  right.  Your  questions  were  nat- 
ural under  the  circumstances." 

104 


Disconcerting  Disclosures 


By  this  time  the  launch  had  done  so  well 
that  the  people  aboard  were  almost  plain 
enough  to  identify.  Hamil  and  the  girl 
walked  down  to  the  edge  of  the  wharf. 

"I  think  that  is  Mr.  McAllister,"  she  said 
presently.  "I  mean  the  one  standing  up  in  the 
bows." 

"Yes,  I  believe  it  is,"  Hamil  answered. 

"And  there  are  two  men  down  in  the  low 
part,"  she  went  on.  "I  don't  see  anybody  else, 
do  you?" 

"No ;  those  must  be  all." 

He  sighed  a  little  in  making  the  answer. 

A  few  seconds  later  settled  all  possible 
doubts ;  the  man  forward  was  McAllister,  and 
the  only  others  on  board  were  two  men  aft. 
They  were  both  strangers  to  Hamil.  By  their 
looks  they  were  merely  servants,  or  boatmen. 

By  this  time  McAllister  had  noticed  them, 
and  he  waved  his  pocket  handkerchief.  They 
waved  theirs  vigorously  in  answer.  The  man 
who  was  steering  sent  the  launch  towards  the 
slip,  and  the  other  man  aft  came  forward,  and 
stood  by  with  a  boathook. 

105 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


At  this  last  moment  the  girl  turned  rather 
abruptly,  and  with  a  smile  to  Hamil. 

"Since  we  have  been  through  such  adven- 
tures together,"  she  said,  "I  am  going  to  be 
so  bold  as  to  go  a  little  further.  I  will  in- 
troduce myself.  I  am  Miss  Winrose,  of  Phil- 
adelphia." 

He  lifted  his  hat. 

"Mr.  Dana  is  glad  to  know  Miss  Winrose. 
The  same  is  true  of  my  other  selves.  I  have 
heard  Bess  speak  of  you." 

The  launch  stopped  her  chugging,  being 
now  close  in.  Hamil  led  Miss  Winrose  down 
the  planks  of  the  slip. 

"Hello!  hello!"  called  out  McAllister. 
"Did  you  folks  think  I  was  never  coming? 
At  the  last  minute  the  plaguey  engine  broke 
down.  The  girls  almost  threw  a  fit,  as  they 
thought  you  would  n't  know  what  to  think, 
or  would  guess  that  we  had  forgotten  you. 
They'd  have  come  along,  but  it  was  a  little 
rough,  and  I  thought  we  'd  better  not  load  the 
boat  down." 

106 


Disconcerting  Disclosures 


"Oh,  we  had  plenty  of  faith,"  said  Miss 
Winrose. 

"Acres  of  it!"  backed  up  Hamil.  He  now 
saw  a  good  and  sufficient  reason,  both  for  the 
delay  and  why  Edith  had  not  come. 

The  man  with  the  boathook  did  as  well  as 
possible  in  fending  off,  and  also  in  holding 
the  boat  up  to  the  slip,  but  nevertheless  there 
was  a  decided  and  disconcerting  lifting  and 
sinking.  McAllister  reached  out  to  steady 
the  girl  aboard,  but  Hamil  motioned  him 
back.  The  boat  had  soared  and  was  sinking 
again,  when  he  pitched  his  overcoat  on  board, 
and  with  a  little  stoop  caught  up  Miss  Win- 
rose.  She  uttered  a  terrified  little  shriek;  but 
before  she  had  any  further  chance  to  object 
she  and  Hamil  had  cleared,  and  were  on  deck. 
He  put  her  down,  and  steadied  her. 

"The  shortest  way,"  he  explained. 

"Oh,  I  suppose  so,"  she  managed  with  a 
little  gasp;  and:  "Thank  you  very  much." 

"Don't  mention  it." 

A  trifle  flustered  still,  she  nevertheless 
107 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


recalled  the  conventions,  and  turned  to  the 
Major. 

"Mr.  McAllister,  this  is  Miss  Winrose.  I 
ought  to  feel  acquainted  with  you,  having 
heard  Bess  so  often  speak  of  you.  She  placed 
'the  Major'  up  among  the  stars,  which  I  can 
believe  was  deserved." 

"Oh,  well,  thank  you.  I  wish  you  young 
ladies  would  say  such  pleasant  things  to  us 
while  we  are  young.  I  shall  be  glad  to  wel- 
come you  to  our  little  spot  in  the  ocean." 

She  had  given  him  her  hand,  which  he  cor- 
dially took,  and  with  a  young  grace  that 
Hamil  would  hardly  have  expected,  lifted  his 
hat. 

"And  now  come  aft,"  he  said,  "where  it  is 
more  comfortable." 

The  two  men  got  the  baggage  aboard,  and 
one  of  them  shoved  off.  Hamil  gave  Miss 
Winrose  the  steadying  of  one  of  his  hands, 
and  all  three  went  along  to  the  standing  room. 

When  they  were  in  comfortable  places  on 
either  side  of  the  Major,  they  chatted  for 
a  moment,  asking  the  usual  conventional  ques- 

108 


Disconcerting  Disclosures 


tions,    and    making    the    expected    answers. 
Then  the  girl  said: 

"By  the  way,  we  had  a  little  adventure  just 
now.  No,  Mr. — eh — Dana,  don't  frown ;  I  am 
merely  going  to  skim  over  the  matter.  He  had 
a  short  personal  combat,  Major,  my  insignifi- 
cant self  being  the  cause,  and  came  off  a  glori- 
ous victor.  He  disarmed  one  foe,  quickly 
wrestled  down  the  other,  and  finally  sent  both 
about  their  business.  They  had  been  drink- 
ing, you  see,  and  though  one  offered  me  some 
candy,  he  used  strong  language  in  doing  it, 
and  Mr.  Dana  thought  it  time  to  put  in  an 
appearance.  That  is  all  I  am  going  to  tell, 
and  Mr.  Dana  can  give  you  the  rest." 

"I  should  n't  think  there  was  any  'rest,' ' 
Hamil  commented. 

"I  suppose,"  remarked  the  Major,  with  an 
admiring  side-glance  at  the  massive  bulk  of 
the  young  man,  "that  there  would  n't  be  a 
great  deal  to  a  row  that  you  were  interested 


in." 


"What  did  you  hint  just  now  about  a  man's 
getting  no  taffy  while  he  was  young?"  pro- 

109 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


testingly  inquired  Hamil.  "Recall  that  ob- 
servation, please,  as  unsupported  by  present 
facts." 

"There,  we  will  spare  your  blushes,"  put 
in  Miss  Winrose. — "Major,  will  you  take  me 
out  fishing?" 

"Will  I!  You  may  depend  on  it  I  will," 
he  answered  with  emphatic  gallantry. 

"The  girls  go,  don't  they?" 

"Sometimes.  By  the  way" — he  turned  a 
little  towards  Hamil — "I  was  intending  to 
say  that  Carmen,  who  has  not  been  in  the  best 
of  health,  is  much  better.  You  asked  me 
about  her  health,  in  asking  about  the  others, 
and  I  said  she  was  well.  I  meant  a  good  deal 
by  that.  I  meant  she  was  again  well  men- 
tally. God  grant  that  this  time  it  may  lastl 
You  both  know  what  her  trouble  has  been,  so 
I  may  as  well  speak  out." 

"Oh,  I  am  jo  glad!"  cried  Miss  Winrose. 

Hamil  rather  gravely  inclined  his  head. 
After  an  instant  he  put  his  hand  on  the  old 
man's,  and  said,  low- voiced: 

"I  congratulate  you  all,  and  her." 
no 


Disconcerting  Disclosures 


McAllister,  showing  by  his  looks  that  he 
was  moved,  grasped  the  hand  on  his,  and  as  he 
held  it,  answered: 

"I  know  you  mean  it.    You  have  shown 
yourself  a  true  friend,  and  one  that  has  filled 
the  hardest  kind  of  place.     This  young  lady 
does  n't  understand  that,  I  suppose,  but  she 
will  later. — And  now  it  is  going  to  be  pleas- 
ant for  all  hands;  and  I  want  everybody  to 
hoe  in,  and  have  a  good  time.     Mr.  Dana, 
I  am  going  to  say  to  you — no  harm  to  say  it 
now,  for  we  don't  care  if  Miss  Winrose  hears 
— I  am  going  to  say  that  Carmen  appreciates 
your  goodness  to  Edith.     In  fact,  that  is  the 
very  thing  she  told  me  to  say  to  you.     She 
knows  all,  you  understand — everything  that 
was  said  and  done  while  she  was  under  the 
cloud.     She    is  n't   much    of   a    talker,    Mr. 
Dana,  and  is  far  more  reserved  than  Edith 
was,  so  at  first  she  will  probably  seem  a  little 
new  and  strange  to  you ;  later  you  will  get  used 
to  her.     I  will  tell  you,  Miss  Winrose,  that 
even  as  Edith  she  was  a  wonderfully  sweet 
and  taking  girl.     Is  n't  that  so,  Mr.  Dana?" 

in 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


Hamil's  head  drooped  just  a  trifle,  but  his 
answer  was  instant:  "Make  that  as  strong 
as  you  please,  and  even  stronger,  dear  Major, 
and  I  will  indorse  it.'7 


112 


CHAPTER  VIII 

LE  BIJOU 

FOR  the  little  time  needed  for  the  rest 
of  the  run  Hamil  was  mainly  silent. 
Night  duskiness  was  now  abroad  on 
the  sea,  and  the  rounded  haunch  of  land  that 
opened  ahead  was  toned  down  to  a  few  gen- 
eral outlines,  and  almost  to  a  severity  of  two 
colors,  dark  gray  and  green.  That  is  to  say 
there  was  a  breaking  out  of  rocks,  and  a 
clumping  together  here  and  there  of  low  ever- 
green trees.  On  what  looked  from  this  view- 
point to  be  the  crown  of  the  land  stood  a  low, 
broad  house,  belted  all  around  with  wide 
piazzas.  It  was  probably  weather-stained 
(artificially),  but  in  this  present  light  it  was 
merely  dusky,  only  not  of  a  like  duskiness  to 
the  rocks  and  the  evergreens. 

The  landing  place  proved  to  be  in  a  little 
bight  on  the  west  side  of  the  island,  and  here 


The  Girl  With  T<wo  Selves 


the  rocks  rose  on  the  north  and  northwest,  so 
that  the  boat  came  into  a  lee. 

Hamil  stood  up.  Just  ahead  was  a  little 
wharf,  with  a  boathouse  at  the  land  side,  and 
a  steep  path  leading  up  from  there  to  the  top 
of  the  low  cliff.  He  searched  the  whole 
range  with  one  swift  glance.  There  was  no- 
body in  sight. 

The  old  fellow  who  was  steering  ran  the 
boat  up  to  the  wharf,  the  big,  lanky  boy  who 
acted  as  mate  jumped  ashore  and  made  fast, 
and  Hamil  helped  Miss  Winrose  out.  Mc- 
Allister, after  giving  a  word  of  directions  to 
his  skipper,  followed. 

"I  '11  take  the  job  of  pilot,"  the  old  man 
said,  as  they  started  up  the  steep  path.  He 
pushed  by  them,  and  Hamil  and  Miss  Win- 
rose  went  leisurely  along  in  his  wake.  The 
path,  by  a  good  light,  would  not  have  been  at 
all  bothersome,  but  there  were  some  stones  and 
hollows,  and  as  they  came  into  the  shadow 
of  a  clump  of  evergreens  Miss  Winrose 
balked  a  little,  and  Hamil  thereupon  took  her 
arm. 

1114 


Le  Bijou 

She  thanked  him,  and  they  were  going  on 
faster,  but  just  then  she  gave  an  exclamation 
and  stopped. 

"Who  is  it?" 

"Probably  my  imagination,  but  I  thought 
that  something  moved  just  in  there — beyond 
the  open  space." 

She  meant  a  place  on  his  left,  a  few  feet 
away,  and  where  there  was  a  little  open  nook. 
He  was  not  for  paying  much  attention,  think- 
ing that  she  could  have  seen  nothing,  when 
a  dry  branch  snapped,  and  a  stooping  woman 
scuttled  out  into  sight.  She  stood  up  straight 
in  the  opening  and  laughed. 

"I  was  never  cut  out  for  secret  service  work; 
that 's  certain.  I  was  going  to  creep  down 
on  you  like  What  Vhis-Name  on  the  Israel- 
ites, but  it 's  a  flat  failure." 

Bess  McAllister  pushed  out  where  they 
were,  and  caught  Miss  Winrose  in  her  arms. 

"Hello,  lovely!" 

"Oh,  Bess,  hello!"  They  kissed  enthusias- 
tically. 

Hamil  stood  back,  to  give  them  room,  and 


The  Girl  With  T<wo  Selves 


meanwhile  he  was  sweeping  a  glance  else- 
where in  the  shadows.  But  there  were  ap- 
parently no  more  ambuscaders. 

Bess  next  turned  to  him,  and  cordially  put 
out  her  hand. 

"How  do  you  do,  Mr. — well,  I  suppose  we 
shall  have  to  call  you  Dana  now?  You  know, 
of  course,  that  things  have  changed.  Did 
you  have  a  pleasant  trip  down?" 

"Very." 

They  finished  this,  and  started  along  again, 
Hamil  now  in  the  rear,  and  the  two  girls, 
hugged  sidewise,  as  if  they  had  been  the  Sia- 
mese twins,  climbing  along  ahead. 

Bess  overflowed  with  questions,  and  an- 
swered a  few.  She  soon  had  the  whole  story 
of  the  "battle"  on  the  wharf,  Miss  Winrose 
this  time  telling  it  at  her  ease,  and  with  un- 
hampered impressiveness. 

"Mr.  Dana  was  a  gentle  knight,  if  ever 
there  was  one,"  she  finished.  "He  made  a 
fritter  of  the  candy  gentleman,  and  turned  him 
over  as  if  he  had  been  in  a  skillet.  I  mean 
by  'he7  the  candy  giver,  and  not  Mr.  Dana. 

116 


Le  Bijou 

Yes,  it  was  all  gentle  enough,  and  from  this 
time  on  I  shall  hold  him  up  as  the  sweetest- 
tempered  fighting  man  ever.  I  hope  this 
is  n't  too  open  for  short  acquaintance — not 
considering  the  circumstances.  Is  it,  Bess?" 

"By  no  manner  of  means.  In  any  case, 
we  are  now  out  of  civilization,  where  the  'best 
is  like  the  worst,'  meaning  that  everybody 
is  good,  but  nobody  is  trying  to  shine.  .Don't 
analyze  that  too  closely.  I  borrowed  part 
of  it  from  Carmen,  who  probably  had  it 
all  sorted,  and  fixed.  Notice,  I  said  'fixed.' 
'Fixed'  goes  here;  it  is  one  of  the  badges  of 
uncivilization." 

Hamil  was  silent  through  it  all.  Between 
them  they  had  carried  the  talk  prettily  away 
from  what  one  of  them  was  pleased  to  call 
the  "battle." 

A  few  moments  later  they  overtook  the  Ma- 
jor, who  had  heard  Bess  talking,  and  waited. 

They  were  now  on  high  ground,  and  had 
the  whole  sweep  of  the  place,  as  well  as  of 
the  darkened,  indistinct  shore,  and  the  gray 
and  narrowing  sea.  Lights  sprang  up  in  the 

117 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


house,  and  made  the  closing  in  of  night  seem 
the  more  real.  Hamil,  in  spite  of  himself, 
feeling  a  little  lonesome  and  uncertain  now 
kept  his  eyes  on  the  house,  and  let  Nature  take 
care  of  herself.  In  fact,  there  was  just  now 
nothing  cheering,  or  encouraging  about  her, 
but  rather  the  reverse. 

It  was  not  very  far,  and  Hamil  said  noth- 
ing on  the  way.  Just  as  they  were  coming 
to  some  side  steps — for  the  house  faced  the 
sea — a  woman  appeared  duskily  from  some 
farther  part  of  the  piazza,  and  came  to  the 
head  of  the  steps.  Hamil  did  not  easily 
carry  figures  of  people  in  his  eye,  and  sel- 
dom remembered  their  clothes,  yet  now  his 
eyes  lighted,  and  had  the  others  been  looking 
they  could  have  seen  a  little  flush  mount  to 
his  face.  He  almost  halted,  but  before  Bess, 
who  was  next  to  him,  could  fairly  notice  it, 
he  was  moving  on  again.  Bess  flourished  her 
hand  and  the  woman  answeringly  flourished 
hers. 

"I  Ve  captured  the  whole  bunch,"  Bess 
raised  her  voice  and  announced. 

118 


Le  Bijou 

"Is  it  your  sister?"  asked  Miss  Winrose. 

"Sure.  Here  she  comes  to  speak  for  her- 
self." 

Carmen  did  not  answer  Bess,  but  she  came 
along  quickly.  The  light  from  the  windows 
struck  more  fairly  on  her  now.  She  had 
tanned  a  little,  and  her  face  had  a  distinct 
color  against  the  fleecy  white  wrap  around 
her  shoulders.  Her  gown  was  white,  too,  as 
Hamil  noticed,  for  as  dull  as  his  observation 
was,  he  did  know  that  he  had  never  seen  her 
all  in  white  before.  He  unconsciously  tried 
to  make  out  more — to  see  what  Carmen  was 
like. 

Bess  introduced  her  promptly  to  Miss  Win- 
rose.  She  got  a  little  nearer  to  Hamil  in  the 
course  of  this,  and  he  advanced  a  step.  "And 
here  is  Mr.  Dana  again,"  Bess  proceeded. 
"You  don't  need  any  introduction  to  him. 
That's  all,  and  let's  skip  into  the  house. 
Supper  is  waiting,  and  for  my  part  I  am  as 
hungry  as — never  mind  about  a  simile." 

She  had  rattled  off  this  last  part  in  a  way 
that  made  Hamil  think  she  was  trying  to  make 

119 


The  Girl  With  T<wo  Selves 


things  easy  for  him  and  Carmen.  She  must 
know  that  there  was  bound  to  be  a  little  awk- 
wardness, however  well  Carmen  and  Hamil 
managed,  and  naturally  she  meant  that  Miss 
Winrose  should  notice  as  little  of  this  as  possi- 
ble. 

Carmen  had  unhesitatingly  put  out  her 
hand,  and  he  had  as  promptly  taken  it.  They 
could  see  each  other's  faces  now,  and  for  just 
one  instant  they  looked,  and  without  pretense. 

She  could  have  had  nothing  new  to  find 
out,  and  was  merely  confirming  the  old;  he 
was  exploring. 

She  was  speaking  as  she  looked,  and  he  was 
ready  with  an  unembarrassed  answer.  "It  is 
pleasant  to  have  you  with  us  again,"  was  what 
she  said,  and  his  answer  was:  "Thank  you. 
I  am  glad  to  be  with  you  all  again." 

And  then  he  was  free  to  print  his  picture 
from  the  film,  for  Carmen  swung  around  be- 
side Miss  Winrose,  and  they  all  started  along. 

The  first  thing  that  was  clear  to  him  was 
that  he  was  not  surprised.  She  was  almost 
prosaically  like  the  person  he  had  built  up 

1 20 


Le  Bijou 

in  his  mind.  She  of  course  had  Edith's  fig- 
ure, but  carried  it  just  a  thought  more  con- 
trolled, and  not  quite  so  lithely  and  girl-free. 
She  could  not  change  the  color  of  her  eyes, 
which  must  still  be  gray,  with  the  wonderful 
dark  brows  and  long  black  eyelashes,  but  he 
was  prepared  to  find  them  withdrawn  a  little 
from  their  ready  outflash,  and  with  nothing 
left  of  the  innocent  freemasonry  of  wifely 
love ;  and  it  could  not  be  otherwise  than  that 
this  was  so.  And  finally,  the  truest  things 
about  it  all  were  the  illusive  ones — those 
which  could  not  be  catalogued,  and  set  down 
in  terms.  For  who  could  put  in  understand- 
able words  the  "lightning  shift"  of  a  soul? 
It  was  simply  true  that  whereas  before  he  had 
known  a  dream  woman,  he  now  saw,  but  did 
not  know,  a  real  and  calmly  poised  one.  He 
had  lost  the  virgin  wife  who  had  come  to  him 
out  of  the  realms  of  fancy,  and  was  now  to 
get  acquainted  with  a  woman  who  was  merely 
masquerading,  as  it  were,  in  her  flesh. 

And  absurd  as  it  may  seem,  he  secretly  felt 
a  little  resentment  towards  the  present  woman. 

121 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


He  felt  vaguely  that  she  was  an  usurper — 
thus  turning  the  fact  exactly  around — and 
her  composure,  and  sureness  in  a  way  almost 
irritated  him.  Yet  this  was  merely  one  of 
the  phases  of  the  workings  of  his  troubled  and 
still  confused  mind.  He  himself  was  hardly 
conscious  of  it.  He  was  certain  of  little  more 
than  that  he  was  trying  hard  and  determinedly 
to  reach  adjustments. 

They  all  trooped  into  the  house,  and  Bess 
motioned  them  from  the  hall  into  the  corner 
room  where  the  bright  lights  were.  There 
was  plenty  of  electricity,  and  a  small  open 
fire  besides.  The  furniture  was  massive,  but 
there  was  a  wealth  of  cushions,  so  that  the 
austerity  was,  so  to  speak,  only  skin  deep,  and 
there  was  an  alcove  with  more  cushions.  In 
the  middle  a  great  table  was  littered  with 
newspapers,  a  little  one  was  piled  high  with 
magazines,  and  in  one  corner  was  a  writing 
desk.  Time  tables  for  trains  and  boats  were 
pinned  beside  it.  There  were  at  least  half 
a  dozen  calendars  in  sight,  and  at  the  corner 
of  the  fireplace  hung  one  of  the  venerable 

122 


Le  Bijou 

Maine  almanacs.  As  far  as  getting  around 
was  concerned,  and  getting  around  on  time, 
it  seemed  that  a  wayfaring  man,  though  a 
fool,  need  not  err. 

"This  room,"  said  Bess,  turning  to  Hamil 
and  Miss  Winrose,  "was  originally  the  hotel 
office,  and  we  make  a  sort  of  office  of  it  still. 
In  fact,  we  call  it  by  that  name.  It  is  the 
chief  place  of  comfort,  the  rallying  point  for 
the  clans,  and  the  one  that  is  never  quite  clean 
nor — thank  heaven — quite  in  order!  I  in- 
troduce you  both  to  it.  May  you  find  it  as 
disreputable  and  lovable  as  we  do." 

They  both  laughed,  and  Miss  Winrose  said 
that  she  already  felt  the  love  part.  It  was 
really  a  bit  chilly,  and  both  of  the  visitors 
took  settles  near  the  fire.  McAllister  pres- 
ently excused  himself,  saying  that  he  had  a 
few  matters  to  see  to,  and  a  little  later  Bess 
asked  Carmen  to  look  into  the  supper  ques- 
tion. For  some  reason  there  was  delay,  and  it 
was  a  matter,  as  Bess  asserted,  that  would  not 
brook  delay. 

Hamil,  who  had  already  worked  in  several 
123 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


observing  glances  at  Carmen,  here  got  a  still 
better  look  at  her.  She  had  risen,  and  was 
standing  in  the  full  flow  of  the  principal  elec- 
tric light.  He  saw  another  person  in  Edith's 
house!  Her  eyes  were  full-orbed  with  com- 
plete sanity,  and  a  grasp  of  all  they  took  in; 
certainly  they  were  not  Edith's  child-trust- 
ful eyes,  with  seeming  barriers  of  blank 
dream-walls  cutting  off  the  past.  Somehow, 
as  things  with  texts,  or  pertinent  verses,  will 
drift  at  such  times  into  the  mind,  there  came 
to  Hamil — not  literally  applicable,  to  be 
sure,  yet  oddly  suggestive — some  lines  that 
he  had  read: 

As  low — all  quick — I  leant, 

Two  large  eyes  thrust  me  back; 
Dark  eyes — too  wise — which  gazed  intent; 

Blue  eyes  transformed  to  black. 

Heavens!  how  those  steadfast  eyes 

Their  eerie  vigil  kept! 
Was  this  some  angel  in  disguise 

Who  searched  us  while  we  slept; 

Who  winnowed  every  sin, 

Who  tracked  each  slip  and  fall, 
124 


Le  Bijou 

One  of  God's  spies — not  Babykin, 
Not  Babykin  at  all? 

Day  came  with  golden  air; 

She  caught  the  beams  and  smiled ; 
No  masked  inquisitor  was  there, 

Only  a  babbling  child! 

But,  in  the  vague  way  that  he  could  be 
said  to  think  the  light  thing  out,  he  reversed 
the  figures.  The  "large  eyes  that  thrust  him 
back"  were  the  real  woman's — Carmen's — 
and  the  ones  that  he  wanted  to  look  into,  and 
that  were  not  "too  wise,"  were  Edith's. 

It  was  nonsense;  yes,  certainly,  and  Hamil 
tried  to  make  it  seem  so.  Carmen  was  ex- 
cusing herself  to  Miss  Winrose  and  to  him 
while  she  went  about  the  supper  preparations, 
and  he  did  his  part,  playfully  saying  that  not 
to  excuse  her  would  be  a  crime. 

After  she  had  gone  he  pulled  himself  to- 
gether, and  went  along  so  sanely  and  sensibly 
that  Bess,  even  if  she  had  been  on  the  watch 
for  any  little  upsetting,  could  not  have  de- 
tected any. 

125 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


Pretty  soon  they  had  news  from  the  kitchen 
of  a  short  delay,  something  or  other  having 
gone  wrong.  Carmen  disappeared  again  as 
soon  as  she  had  brought  the  tidings,  and  Hamil 
shortly  afterwards  found  himself  alone,  for 
Bess  carried  off  Miss  Winrose.  As  Bess  was 
going  she  spoke  back,  and  told  Hamil  that 
now  he  would  have  time  to  establish  himself 
in  his  room,  and  that  she  would  send  a  servant 
to  show  him  there. 

He  got  up  as  soon  as  they  had  both  gone, 
and  fell  into  one  of  his  ways,  which  was  to 
work  off  too  much  thought  by  exercise. 

But  he  had  hardly  taken  two  turns  when 
the  portiere  leading  to  the  rear  parts  of  the 
house  was  again  switched  aside,  and  Carmen 
looked  in. 

"Oh,  they  have  gone?"  she  said,*  as  she  saw 
that  he  was  alone. 

"Yes,  they  just  went." 

"Perhaps  you  would  like  to  go  to  your 
room?  There  is  a  lazy  young  colored  gen- 
tleman that  I  think  I  can  persuade  to  show 
you  there." 

126 


Le  Bijou 

"Bess — I  mean  Miss  Bessie — has  already 
arranged  that  for  me." 

He  had  stopped  rather  near  her.  Doubt- 
less unconsciously,  he  was  looking  with  open 
steadfastness  at  her.  She  faintly  colored,  and 
made  as  if  to  go.  All  at  once  it  came  to  him 
that  he  had  again  overstepped  polite  bounds. 
He  made  a  little  impatient  gesture,  and  sud- 
denly strode  almost  up  to  her. 

"Just  one  moment,  if  you  please." 

She  had  opened  her  eyes  rather  widely, 
and  in  fact,  had  looked  a  shade  startled,  but 
nevertheless,  she  had  stopped.  As  he  spoke, 
she  fully  collected  herself,  and  pleasantly 
waited. 

"It  is  an  apology,"  he  began  with  simple 
directness.  "I  was  staring  at  you,  and  I  did 
the  same  thing  a  few  minutes  ago.  I  ask  your 
pardon." 

"Why,"  she  said,  and  she  laughed  a  little, 
the  color  nevertheless  deepening,  "I  freely 
forgive  you.  To  be  frank,"  she  went  on, 
meeting  his  look  fully  and  unswervingly,  "it 
was  natural  for  you  to  do  that.  I  am  afraid 

127 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


that  in  return  I — well,  I  was  not  all  the  time 
looking  elsewhere.  But  the  circumstances 
are  so  very  peculiar  that  I  think  we  were  botK 
excusable.  We  will  wipe  it  off  the  slate, 
then,  and  start  over." 

Here  was  at  last  a  faint  reminder  of  Edith. 
For  all  the  dream-girl's  gentleness,  she  could 
be  very  positive,  and  she  had  a  way  of 
saying  things  that  in  print  would  call  for 
rather  frequent  italics;  it  appeared  that  Car- 
men had  the  same  little  trick. 

What  was  left  of  the  pucker  between  his 
brows  smoothed  out. 

"You  are  very  generous.  I  am  sure  that 
your  offense  was  light  compared  with  mine. 
And  still,  as  you  say,  even  what  I  did  was  nat- 
ural. I  did  not  mean  to  drag  these  past  mat- 
ters to  the  fore,"  he  added  apologetically, 
"for  I  can  understand  how  disagreeable  they 
must  be  to  you.  Let  them  all  go.  We  will 
have  a  frank  understanding  to  that  effect.  It 
may,  after  all,  be  more  satisfactory  than  a  tacit 


one." 


128 


Le  Bijou 

She  seemed  a  grain  surprised,  he  thought, 
yet  nodded. 

"You  are  always  a  gentleman.  Yes,  the 
very  flower  of  one,  for — " 

Somebody  came  into  the  room  beyond. 
She  turned  and  looked. 

"Never  mind,  Henry.  Come  again  in 
three  or  four  minutes." 

The  man  retreated,  and  shut  a  door  after 
him. 

"Now*  that  we  have  gone  so  far,"  she  said, 
"I  am  going  to  say  a  little  more.  I  intended 
after  a  while  to  say  it — when  I  should  feel 
better  acquainted  with  you — but  it  may  as 
well  be  now.  Let 's  sit  down  a  moment,  and 
appear  common-place.  Somebody  else  may 


come." 


She  led  the  way  to  a  chair,  which  he  turned 
around  for  her.  He  sat  down  a  few  feet 
away.  From  this  angle  the  light  fell  on  her 
hair,  which  had  the  chameleon  trick  of  re- 
turning a  brightness  of  its  own.  It  gleamed 
now  like  fine-spun  gold.  Here  was  another 
9  129 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


reminder  of  the  vanished  dream-girl,  and  it 
brought  his  lips  almost  grimly  together. 

But  she  had  begun  to  speak  again,  going 
on  a  little  hurriedly,  to  be  sure,  and  yet  seri- 
ously. He  leaned  back  in  his  chair,  that  he 
might  not  seem  to  be  scrutinizing  her  too 
closely,  and  politely  listened.  However  he 
felt  how  far  he  was  on  edge,  he  was  mana- 
ging to  keep  it  all  out  of  his  face, 


1130 


CHAPTER  IX 

WHO  IS  THE  USURPER? 

«f"~I~"'V)  go  on  with  what  I  began,"  she 
was  saying,  "I  want  to  try  to  put  in 
words  how  I  appreciate  all  that 
you  have  done.  It  is  not  only  right  that  I 
should  do  so,  but  it  is  a  pleasure.  At  least, 
it  is  a  pleasure  now,  though  I  confess  that  it 
was  at  first  a  dread.  It  is  a  humiliation  to  be 
sick,  and  especially  to  be  mentally  sick,  and 
in  my  case  there  was  added  a — was  added  an 
extra  humiliation.  It  cuts  me  like  a  knife  to 
talk  about  it,  and  I  shan't. 

"But  to  go  back  to  you  again,"  she  pursued. 
"We  all  feel  that  you  managed  splendidly, 
and  my  father  and  sister  say  that  they  don't 
know  what  they  should  have  done  without 
you.  From  the  time  this  new — new  hallu- 
cination seized  me  you  were  their  mainstay, 
and  they  never  once  had  reason  to  doubt  you. 


The  Girl  With   Two  Selves 


And  we  all  thank  God,  Mr.  Dana,  that  it  was 
you,  and  not  someone  else  that  appeared  that 
night.  Few  men  were  ever  placed  in  a 
harder  and  more  bewildering  position  than 
you  were,  and  few  indeed  could  have  ac- 
quitted themselves  so  well. 

"And  now  I  am  willing,  as  you  say,  to  let 
it  all  drop.  Edith  is  dead — or  I  hope  that  in 
God's  mercy  she  is — and  Mr.  Beauchamp  has 
gone.  Miss  McAllister  is  here,  and  so  is  Mr. 
Dana.  Though  he  is  my  father's  secretary, 
he  is  also,  while  he  stays,  an  honored  guest." 

She  arose,  and — just  a  little  stagily,  per- 
haps, but  the  circumstances  were  trying — put 
out  her  hand. 

Hamil  took  it,  and  bowed. 

"I  thank  you,  Miss  McAllister,  both  for 
all  the  good  things  you  have  said,  and  also 
for  your  generosity.  But  if  you  please" — 
she  was  turning  towards  the  door — "I  should 
like  to  add  something  to  this  clearing-up  talk. 
It  shall  be  brief." 

She  halted  and  turned  to  him  again,  ex- 
pectant, perhaps  a  trifle  startled  too. 

132 


Who  Is  the  Usurper? 


"Certainly,"  she  acquiesced.  "You  have 
earned  the  right  to  add  what  you  please." 

"I  spoke  just  now  of  your  generosity.  I 
think  you  must  understand  me  as  to  that. 
You  spoke  of  the  times  that  I  kept  the  faith, 
but  not  of  the  times  that  I  faltered,  and  almost 
failed.  I  can  believe  that  you  generously 
charged  these  small  lapses — that  nevertheless, 
were  not  so  small  as  they  appeared — to  the 
weakness  of  man-nature,  and  thanked  God 
that  they  were  no  greater.  Well,  and  I  must 
say  something  right  on  this  point.  You  will 
see  the  propriety  and  desirability  of  it,  when 
I  am  through." 

He  looked  her  almost  compellingly  in 
the  face,  and  though  she  drew  her  brows  a 
trifle  together — not  at  all  after  Edith's  fash- 
ion— at  the  end  she  nodded. 

"I  promise  to  listen.     Go  on." 

"To  be  certain  of  my  ground  I  must  first 
ask  a  question.  Do  you  recall  distinctly  what 
I  said  to  you  the  day  I  last  saw  you?  It  was 
just  before  my  train  started.  I  said:  What- 
ever may  happen  in  the  future  you  will  not 

133 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


blame  me  for  what  I  have  said  and  done  lately, 
and  what  I  may  say  and  do  to  the  same  pur- 
port after  this?'" 

"Mr.  Dana,"  she  protested,  ancl  now  she 
darkly  flushed,  "I  do  not  think  that  this  is 
quite  generous.  You  say  yourself  that  I  have 
overlooked  some  small  matters  where  you — 
not  in  any  coarse  manner,  to  be  sure — well, 
made  fully  enough  of  your  opportunities.  I 
attributed  those  small  lapses  to  the — the 
temptations  brought  about  by  the  circum- 
stances, and  also  to  a  real  friendship  that  you 
had  learned  to  feel  for  Edith.  I  have  no  rea- 
son to  change  my  mind  on  these  points,  and 
therefore  why  bring  the  matter  up  again  now? 
If  it  is  necessary  to  be  plainer  than  I  have  been, 
I  will  say  that  it  is  all  disagreeable  as  well 
as  mortifying  to  me." 

But  he  did  not  in  the  slightest  degree  flincK. 
Instead,  his  now  very  earnest  eyes  seemed  to 
take  on  new  insistence.  At  the  same  time, 
there  was  no  reckless  obstinacy,  but  rather  a 
calm  and  even  dignified  implication  that  be- 
hind what  he  had  said,  and  what  was  yet  to 

134 


Who  Is  the  Usurper? 


come,  was  a  just  and  reasonable  motive.  She 
bit  her  lip,  but  she  felt  the  opposition  of  her 
words  swept  away,  and  knew  that  she  must 
yield.  Saying  no  more  she  listened. 

As  if  weighing  his  words,  but  with  a  feeling 
underneath  that  was  not  to  be  overlooked,  he 
went  on: 

"And  besides  what  I  have  just  quoted,  I 
also  said:  'I  am  doing  what  I  believe  the 
situation  calls  for,  but  it  may  not  be  the  best 
that  could  be  done.  Some  things  have  been 
hard  for  me,  and  in  more  than  one  way.  If 
you  want  to  know  all  about  it  sometime  I 
will  tell  you.7  Now,  Miss  McAllister,  you 
don't  seem  to  want  to  know  all  about  it,  but 
I  want  you  to.  It  is  simply  justice  to  me,  es- 
pecially since  I  see  how  far  you  are  astray 
in  one  particular.  The  truth  is,  I  guessed  at 
the  start  that  it  might  be  so.  After  I  explain 
the  true  situation,  if  my  presence  is  then  dis- 
agreeable to  you  it  shall  be  removed.  I  will 
take  the  morning  boat." 

She  looked  a  bit  confused  now,  and  as  if 
no  longer  sure  of  her  ground.  It  might  be 

135 


The  Girl  With   T<wo  Selves 


guessed,  too,  that  what  he  had  said  had  aroused 
some  curiosity.  But  however  it  was,  she 
quickly  answered  him,  speaking  this  time  with 
a  different  note. 

"No,"  she  said.  "There  will  be  no  need 
of  that.  There  can't  be.  Say  on,  and  if  need 
be  we  will  bury  it  all  in  one  grave." 

"It  won't  take  long  to  say  it.  The  allow- 
ance I  wanted  you  chiefly  to  make — if  ever 
you  became  Carmen — was  this:  that  in  all 
tenderness  and  all  sincerity,  I  loved  Edith. 
That  is  the  whole  of  it." 

He  nodded  calmly,  and  pushed  back  his 
chair.  In  turn,  he  seemed  ready  to  go. 

But  she  was  not  so  well  prepared.  The 
dark  and  beautiful  McAllister  eyebrows  went 
up  and  down  once  or  twice,  and  the  well- 
poised  Carmen  face  lost  something  of  its  sure- 
ness. 

"Why,  in  that  case,"  she  said  hesitatingly, 
"there  was,  as  you  say,  something  that  you 
had  a  right  to  add.  It  was  a  sort  of  justifica- 
tion. Not  that  you  really  needed  it,  for — " 
Something  else  seamed  to  cross  her  mind,  and 

136 


Who  Is  the  Usurper? 


she  thoughtfully  paused.  "I  am  sorry  for 
you,  Mr.  Dana,"  she  said  gently,  and  looking 
up  in  his  face,  "for  now  I  see  that  there  is  a 
chance  for  you  to  be  unhappy.  I  hope  that 
at  least  you  won't  continue  to  be,  but  will  be 
wise  and  brave,  and  soon  be  your  old  self.  It 
was  all  a  dream,  you  know,  for  Edith  is  dead, 
and  her  fancies  and  hallucinations  with  her. 
I  do  not  believe  that  she  will  ever  come  back; 
I  feel  sure  that  she  won't.  I  have  a  stronger 
grip  on  my  real  self  than  I  had  when  I  lost  it 
before,  and  by  the  help  of  God,  I  will  this 
time  make  a  winning  fight  to  keep  it." 

She  spoke  almost  with  desperation,  and  he 
answered  only  with  a  grave  nod.  Yet  after 
all,  there  was  a  sort  of  fear  and  doubt  under 
her  seeming  confidence,  or  so  one  might  have 
guessed.  In  another  moment  this  was  plain, 
for  all  at  once  she  went  on : 

"But  if  the  spell  should  come  back,  then  I 
hope  you  will  be  gone.  If  I  end  my  days  on 
account  of  it" — she  reddened  a  little,  and  bit- 
terly smiled — "if  that  happens,  why  let  it. 
All  the  better.  As  for  you,  it  would  be  but 

137 


The  Girl  With   Two  Selves 


chasing  a  dream  once  more,  with  always  final 
disappointment.  You  must  in  your  heart 
agree  with  me.  In  sense,  you  can't  help  it." 

But  she  had  one  more  surprise. 

He  walked  very  close  to  her,  and  in  a  way 
that  startled  her,  looked  down  in  her  face. 

"I  don't  agree  with  you.  It  is  all  the  other 
way.  You  know  nothing  whatever  about  it. 
You  remember  my  gentle  kisses,  and  my  al- 
most fatherly  ways,  and  you  think  that  I 
can't  be  very  hard  hit.  I  was.  I  suppose 
that  it  is  ungenerous  to  come  out  with  such 
reminders,  but  I  don't  care.  I  can't  always 
be  muzzled  and  kenneled.  I  may  have  loved 
a  dream,  as  you  say,  but  it  was  a  sweet  and 
beautiful  one,  and  such  as  I  shall  never  see  the 
like  of.  It  may  sound  like  raving,  but  I  can't 
quite  forgive  you  for  acting  the  usurper. 
And  now  you  do  understand,  you  can't  help 
it.  Perhaps  I  am  a  little  barbarous.  If  I 
am,  forgive  it  if  you  can.  But  after  all  this 
you  will  agree  that  it  is  better  I  should  go 
away,  and  not  after  a  while,  as  you  imply,  but 
soon.  Perhaps  I  had  better  not  go  in  the 

138 


Who  Is  the  Usurper? 


morning,  as  that  might  seem  too  abrupt.  I 
will  put  it  off  till  the  next  day.  Meanwhile, 
you  need  not  see  much  of  me." 

He  threw  his  look  past  her,  and  the  lumps 
showed  plainly  in  his  heavy  jaws. 

But  he  was  not  to  give  all  the  surprises;  by 
a  better  distribution  of  things,  he  was  now  to 
receive  one. 

She  gave  way  a  step,  as  he  seemed  almost  to 
overshadow  her  with  his  larger  form,  but  at 
the  same  time,  she  gently  put  up  a  protesting 
hand. 

"Mr.  Dana!    Wait!" 

He  turned  a  little,  and  looked  down  at  her. 
There  was  a  glint  of  excitement  in  her  eyes, 
and  a  flush  had  sprung  up  in  her  cheeks. 
Whatever  the  change  might  mean,  the  phil- 
osophic poise  with  which  she  had  ended  her 
last  speech  was  gone. 

The  puzzle  of  the  change  left  him  irreso- 
lute, and  by  degrees  some  of  his  fire  died 
down.  He  nodded  acquiescently,  and  po- 
litely turned  wholly  about.  He  even  smiled, 
though  rather  glimmeringly. 

139 


The  Girl  With   Two  Selves 


"If  you  have  anything  more  to  say  to  the 
bear,  say  it." 

"You  are  not  a  bear.  You  are  simply  frank 
and  brave.  I  like  that.  Besides,  we  are  at 
last  on  a  sane  and  substantial  footing.  You 
have  told  me  that  you  loved  Edith,  but  almost 
resent  my  existence — Stop,  it  is  what  you 
meant.  Good!  I  want  it  so.  In  turn  I 
don't  look  on  you  in  the  least  as  Edith  did, 
for  you  do  not  impress  me  in  a  personal  sense 
— your  looks,  I  mean.  On  the  other  hand,  I 
deeply  respect  you.  Now,  why  are  n't  we 
making  excellent  progress?  You  must  stay, 
and  we  will  be  friends.  Yes,  and  to  go  on  in 
frankness,  I  can't  quite  help  liking  you  better 
because  you  did  love  Edith  so.  She  begins  to 
seem  to  me  now  almost  like  a  dead  sister.  I 
think  better  of  her  than  I  did,  for  hitherto 
she  has  been  to  me  nearly  like  a  robber.  But 
if  a  man  like  you  found  lovable  things  in  her 
she  must  be  rather  worth  while.  So  you  see," 
she  laughed,  "your  explosion  has  done  con- 
siderable good.  It  has  reconciled  me  to  my 
deadly  enemy." 

140 


Who  Is  the  Usurper? 


By  the  time  she  was  through  his  face  had 
wholly  cleared.  He  laughed  a  little,  joining 
with  her* 

Once  more,  and  as  by  a  common  impulse, 
they  shook  hands. 

"And  now,"  she  said,  "it  is  time  for  Henry, 
and  I  have  something  to  do  with  the  supper." 
Adding  a  few  words  of  Italian  she  nodded 
brightly,  and  for  a  fleeting  instant  he  had  a 
glimpse  of  Edith.  It  was  the  look,  combined 
with  the  familiar  little  trick  of  the  Italian 
windup. 

Just  then  a  door  again  opened  and  Henry 
came  to  show  Hamil  to  his  room. 


141 


CHAPTER  X 

A  POSTPONED  MARRIAGE  PROMISE 

WHEN  Hamil  went  down  to  dinner  he 
found  the  others  already  assembled. 
The  Englishman  and  the  Jew,  both 
of  whom  had  come  that  morning,  were  there, 
and  of  course  Miss  Winrose.     It  seemed  that 
Bessie's  friend  and  his  chum  were  due  to  ar- 
rive the  next  day.     Carmen  delayed  the  gen- 
eral sitting-down  till  she  had  presented  Hamil 
to  the  other  two  gentlemen. 

While  unfolding  his  napkin  Hamil  got  a 
more  informing  look  at  the  two  strangers, 
and  immediately  found  that  the  mental  pic- 
ture he  had  allowed  his  imagination  to  sketch 
needed  touching  up.  He  had  conceived  of 
Quesencourt  as  large,  red  and  "beefy,"  with 
fair  hair  and  little  closely-trimmed  whiskers. 
This  was  rather  conventional,  certainly,  and 
had  to  be  considerably  modified,  for  the  real 

142 


A  Postponed  Marriage  Promise 

Englishman,  though  tall,  was  lean,  large- 
boned,  smoothly-shaven,  and  so  deeply  tanned 
that  any  natural  ruddiness  of  skin  was  com- 
pletely painted  out.  His  eyes  and  hair  were 
medium  brown,  and  he  had  dazzling  white 
teeth.  As  his  features  were  pretty  regular, 
he  rounded  out  more  than  average  good  looks, 
and  in  fact,  many  would  have  called  him 
handsome.  He  wore  his  hair  pompadour,  but 
short,  and  the  effect  was  a  little  bristly.  He 
was  dressed  in  unbleached  linen,  with  a  gray 
shirt  and  a  blue  necktie,  and  a  very  long,  very 
fine-linked  watch-chain  was  wound  twice 
around  his  neck.  He  appeared  to  be  about 
Hamil's  age,  or  somewhat  short  of  thirty. 

The  Jew,  who  Hamil  had  sketched  in  ad- 
vance as  short  and  stubby  in  figure,  was  rather 
tall,  and  rosily  smooth  and  round.  His  hair 
was  black  and  crinkly,  and  thin  on  top,  and 
his  full  beard  and  mustache  were  fine  and 
woolly,  as  if  they  were  a  first  and  only  growth. 
His  nose  was  fat,  his  forehead  large,  and  his 
eyes  were  the  mildest  sort  of  black.  His 
loose  clothes  were  of  fine  brown  cloth,  and 

H3 


The  Girl  With  T<WQ  Selves 


his  standing  collar  flared  high  about  his  short 
and  fat  neck.  A  small  diamond  shone  in  his 
white  four-in-hand.  His  eyes  winked  often, 
and  did  not  seem  very  strong,  and  he  wore 
gold-bowed  eyeglasses  attached  by  a  cord  to 
a  hook  on  his  lapel.  It  was  a  guess  that  he 
was  younger  than  he  looked,  but  he  could 
hardly  have  been  under  forty. 

There  was  as  little  other  formality  as  pos- 
sible before  the  meal  was  in  full  swing,  and 
Hamil  saw  at  once  that  the  Major  and  the  girls 
had  been  in  earnest  when  they  proclaimed  the 
freedom  and  social  undress  of  Le  Bijou. 
Everything  was  delightfully  and  restfully 
simple,  each  person  could  say  and  do  as  he 
pleased,  and,  the  table  at  which  they  sat  was 
round. 

This  last  neat  stroke  was  of  some  conse- 
quence to  Hamil.  He  had  felt  that  his  posi- 
tion was  a  bit  anomalous,  for  he  was  both  a 
friend  of  the  family,  and  at  the  same  time  a 
kind  of  gentleman  servant  to  the  head  of  it. 
He  was  not  sure  what  the  Englishman  and  the 
Jew  might  know  of  his  strange  claims  on  the 

144 


A  Postponed  Marriage  Promise 

friendship  of  the  family;  whether  they  might 
regard  it  as  a  sort  of  professional  claim,  or 
how  they  would  look  upon  it.  As  he  men- 
tally put  it  to  himself — they  might  not  regard 
him  as  "flesh,  fish,  or  good  red  herring." 
Now,  as  he  took  in  the  meaning  of  the  round 
table,  and  with  it  noted  how  all  were  made 
to  conform  to  the  equality  implied  by  it,  he 
felt  that  he  had  no  need  to  concern  himself. 
The  matter  had  been  taken  out  of  his  hands. 
The  island,  as  compared  with  the  world  with- 
out, was  like  the  Marly  of  the  great  Louis,  as 
compared  with  his  Versailles. 

Finding  his  social  feet  thus  firmly  placed, 
Hamil  was  more  at  his  ease,  but  still  he  was 
tactful  enough  to  understand  that  he  would  do 
well  to  be  modest,  and  not  seem  to  be  making 
any  too  much  of  the  Arthurian  privilege.  In 
other  words,  he  determined  to  keep  in  a  great 
degree  in  the  background,  and  as  he  had  been 
placed  between  Bess  and  the  Jew,  at  first  it 
was  easy  to  follow  his  plan,  for  Bess  was  try- 
ing to  bring  out  the  somewhat  stolid  English- 
man, and  getting  him  into  talk  with  Miss 

i4S 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


Winrose,  and  Baum  was  taking  an  open  and 
almost  child-like  interest  in  his  food,  but  after 
a  few  minutes  these  conditions  changed. 
Miss  Winrose  and  Quesencoiirt  were  at  last 
brought  to  a  little  duet,  and  the  Jew  suddenly 
abated  his  assault  on  his  plate,  and  slanted  his 
face  around  to  Hamil. 

"This  place  provokes  a  great  appetite,  and 
a  fellow  does  n't  have  to  hide  it.  That  is  one 
of  the  freedoms.  Why,  maybe  one  could  al- 
most make  a  little  noise  in  eating,  like  Sam- 
uel Johnson,  and  not  be  rebuked.  Don't  you 
think  we  are  all  fortunate  to  be  here?" 

There  was  something  so  simple  and  good- 
natured  in  the  man's  way  that  Hamil  was 
drawn  to  him.  His  voice  was  rich,  with  a 
suggestion  of  slipping  from  English,  but 
never  quite  doing  it,  yet  with  his  native  Ger- 
man always  just  under  the  surface.  He  was 
born  in  Berlin,  as  Hamil  had  already  heard. 

"I  don't  think  there  is  a  doubt  that  we  are 
lucky  in  being  here,"  Hamil  answered  him. 
"I  am  not  so  sure,  though,  about  the  Johnson 

146 


A  Postponed  Marriage  Promise 

business.  It  might  be  a  little  risky  to  try 
it." 

"Pushing  one's  liberty  to  license?  True. 
We  'd  better  not  try  it.  My  friend  the  Major 
is  not  a  man  to  offend;  no.  He  has  been 
trained  to  business,  and  business  is  very  se- 
vere, and  not  to  be  fooled  with.  Do  you 
know  about  it?  Have  you  been  trained  to 
it?" 

"Hardly;  only  a  sprinkling,  so  to  speak." 

"Yes?  So  with  me,  too.  I  inherited  a  little 
fortune,  and  have  made  it  work  well  for  me, 
and  take  care  of  me.  I  am  lazy.  Oh,  God, 
yes.  So  I  am  a  non-commercial  Jew,  and  not 
quite  orthodox,  at  that.  Sad  to  see  such  a 
degenerate.  Will  you  not  pass  those  pickles? 
I  do  not  ask  the  servant  because  that  is  what 
I  should  do  at  home,  and  here  we  all  seek  a 
change,  so  they  tell  me — thank  you." 

Hamil  was  allowing  himself  to  be  amused. 
At  least,  it  was  a  little  relaxation  from  the 
strain  he  had  been  under. 

"According  to  what  you  say,"  he  remarked, 

H7 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


"you  and  the  Major  like  each  other  because 
you  are  opposites." 

"A  good  deal  on  that  account.  He  gives 
me  business  advice  when  I  have  to  bother  with 
my  investments,  and  that  makes  me  admire 
him.  It  is  great  to  have  such  a  head.  Dear 
me  I  And  I  can  do  nothing  for  him,  which 
grieves  me." 

But  here  Bess,  who  had  momentarily  caught 
the  talk,  suddenly  put  in  her  word. 

"Oh,  that  is  n't  true.  Excuse  me,  Mr. 
Baum,  but  you  are  lying  terribly.  Mr.  Dana, 
he  is  altogether  too  modest.  He  has  gifts, 
and  he  knows  how  to  use  them.  He  has 
cheered  papa  through  blue  spells,  and  taken 
his  attention,  and  he  plays  the  harp  when  talk 
won't  do,  as  David  played  to  cheer  Saul.  The 
comparison  is  all  the  better  that  Mr.  Baum's 
name  is  David.  So  there!  Now  I  have 
helped  to  set  things  right.  And  Mr.  Baum, 
after  supper  you  must  play  to  us,  and  prove 
what  I  have  said." 

"Here  is  the  freedom  I  spoke  of,"  the  man 
said  to  Hamil.  "She  calls  me  a  liar.  Ach, 

148 


A  Postponed  Marriage  Promise 

but  all  men  are  liars,  and  so  she  spoke  the 
truth.  Well,  I  will  play  and  sing.  After 
that  you  shall  give  us  something  on  the  guitar. 
There  is  no  refusing,  if  I  understand  the  rules 
of  the  island  aright.  Is  not  that  so,  Miss  Mc- 
Allister?" 

He  looked  across  at  Carmen,  who  by  this 
time  was  listening. 

"Exactly  true." 

"Oh,  well,"  said  Bess,  "I  did  n't  intend  to 
refuse." 

"That  will  be  finel"  Quesencourt,  in  his 
turn,  put  in. 

"And  you'll  give  us  The  British  Lion,' 
Quesencourt?"  the  Major  took  his  turn,  and 
compellingly  asked. 

"If  it  is  enjoined.  I  am  under  the  law,  like 
all  the  rest." 

Miss  Winrose,  being  done  for  the  time  with 
Quesencourt,  looked  smilingly  across  at 
Hamil. 

"And  how  about  the  knight  errant?  Some 
knight  errants  were  also  troubadours,  I  be- 
lieve." 

149 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


"Events  are  thickening,  to  use  an  original 
expression,"  Hamil  smiled  back,  and  an- 
swered. "We  are  all  getting  into  it.  Well, 
as  this  is  a  time  and  a  place  for  frankness,  I 
will  say  that  I  am  willing  to  try  something. 
It  is  not  to  be  singing,  though ;  it  shall  be  at 
the  piano.  Major,  how  is  it  with  you?" 

"I  don't  know  a  thing  about  music,  though 
I  like  it.  I  '11  be  audience.  Miss  Winrose, 
you  play  or  sing,  or  both?" 

"I  don't  sing,  but  as  this  is  a  truth  club  I 
will  own  that  I  play  the  piano  a  little." 

"Miss  McAllister,  you  can  do  all  kinds  of 
things  to  a  piano,"  said  Quesencourt,  thus  dis- 
posing of  the  last  survivor — "Excellent!  We 
are  all  settled." 

They  had  grown  enthusiastic  about  it. 
Something  more  was  said,  and  the  conversa- 
tion split  up  again,  each  talking  to  one  or  two, 
and  not  to  all  the  rest.  In  the  midst  of  this 
Carmen  singled  out  Hamil.  They  were  for 
the  moment  virtually  by  themselves. 

"You  are  musical,  then?"  she  said  a  little 
curiously.  "Under  the  circumstances  it  is  a 

150 


A  Postponed  Marriage  Promise 

discovery.  Somehow  I  had  a  notion  that  you 
were  of  a  different  temperament — say,  math- 
ematical, or  mechanical,  or  any  way,  decid- 
edly practical." 

"Perhaps  I  am  some  of  those  as  well,"  he 
answered,  smiling.  "But  you  see,"  he  went 
on,  with  a  little  more  earnestness,  but  yet  with 
seeming  lightness,  "you  don't  know  much 
about  me.  To  compare  small  things  with 
great,  I  have  thus  far  been  like  the  moon, 
which  always  keeps  one  side  away  from  us." 

"I  shall  be  interested,"  she  said  with  unhes- 
itating point,  "to  see  what  is  on  the  other  side." 

Somebody  else  struck  in  just  here,  and  their 
banter  abruptly  ended. 

Music  still  held  the  place  of  honor  in  the 
general  talk,  and  even  the  Major  had  some- 
thing to  say  about  it,  though  he  wanted  it  un- 
derstood that  he  knew  much  more  about 
checkers.  The  end  of  the  supper  finally 
broke  up  the  subject,  and  scattered  them, 
though  it  was  agreed  that  they  were  to  come 
together  again  half  an  hour  later.  "The  con- 
cert," the  Major  explained,  "will  be  held  in 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


the  music  room,  which  is  the  other  side  of 
the  hall,  where  the  piano  is.  Incidentally, 
there  's  a  good  floor  for  dancing,  but  I  don't 
suppose  you  '11  right  away  get  down  to  that. 
However,  if  you  should,  then  the  audience — 
meaning  me — will  raise  no  objections." 

Hamil  thought  he  would  fill  in  the  half 
hour  by  a  stroll  out  of  doors.  They  were  all 
in  the  "office"  at  the  time,  and  he  crossed  over 
to  a  clothes-hook  after  his  cap.  Carmen  was 
standing  a  few  steps  away,  by  one  of  the  win- 
dows, trying  to  peer  out.  Just  then  Quesen- 
court,  his  own  cap  in  his  hand,  came  along. 

"Can't  see  much,  can  you?"  he  asked  her. 
She  turned  to  him,  and  said  that  she  was  n't 
trying  very  hard.  "I  dare  say  you  could 
make  out  more  at  close  range,"  he  went  on. 
"Would  you  mind  taking  a  turn  of  the  piazza 
with  me?  It  would  be  a  sort  of  constitu- 
tional." 

She  shook  her  head. 

"It's  a  little  dark,  and  not  exactly  cheer- 
ful. I  think  I  'd  rather  not." 

"More  of  us  will  make  it  cheerful,"  spoke 
152 


A  Postponed  Marriage  Promise 

up  Bess.  "Come,  Marcella,  join  me  for  a 
spin.  The  piazza  goes  clear  around,  so  we 
can  do  quite  a  circumnavigating  act." 

"Wait  till  I  get  a  wrap  and  I  '11  go,"  Miss 
Winrose  answered. 

"All  right.  Don't  you  want  to  go  now, 
sis,  dear?" 

"Well,  perhaps  so." 

As  soon  as  the  girls  were  ready  the  four 
passed  outside,  Hamil,  who  had  taken  the  no- 
tion to  linger,  leisurely  following.  But  he 
immediately  left  the  piazza,  and  struck  off 
among  the  surrounding  walks  and  paths. 

He  was  calling  himself  a  hard  name  as  he 
started,  and  he  ended  with :  "What  difference 
does  it  make  to  me?"  He  had  picked  up  a 
stick,  and  to  show  how  little  difference  the 
something  did  make  to  him,  he  doubled  the 
stick  in  his  hands,  and  broke  it.  He  walked 
on  glumly  and  fast  for  the  next  ten  minutes, 
after  which  he  gradually  grew  steadier,  and 
finally  turned  back,  going  up  one  of  the  walks 
to  the  nearest  steps  of  the  piazza.  It  chanced 
that  the  place  was  at  the  end  farthest  from  the 

153 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


front,  where  some  vines  curtained  a  piece  of 
lattice-work.  He  came  into  the  obscurity  of 
these  at  a  step,  and  must  have  been  hidden  on 
the  instant  from  the  two  persons  who  were  at 
the  opposite  corner.  They  were  sufficiently 
out  in  the  light  so  that  he  could  tell  who  they 
were,  though  at  the  moment  they  were  but 
half  faced  around.  The  tall  figure  was  Ques- 
encourt,  and  the  one  nearly  in  white  was  Car- 
men. Just  now,  at  least,  they  were  alone,  for 
Bess  and  Miss  Winrose  were  not  in  sight. 

Before  he  thought,  Hamil  pulled  up  short. 
As  yet  he  had  made  very  little  noise,  and  there 
were  other  sounds — the  rustling  of  the  leaves 
under  the  fitful  stir  of  wind,  the  deep  sub- 
tone  of  the  surf  and  small  noises  from  within 
the  house  to  help  cover  it.  She  was  speaking, 
and  her  voice  had  a  carrying  quality  that  made 
it  heard  beyond  what  would  have  been  guessed 
as  she  said: 

"No,  I  still  think  as  I  did  before.  I  can't 
decide.  I  am  not  ready.  How  do  I  know 
that  the  old  trouble  won't  return?  I  must 
feel  sure  of  that  before  I  even  consider  an  an- 

154 


A  Postponed  Marriage  Promise 

swer.  I  like  you  very  much,  Mr.  Quesen- 
court,  and  I  have  sufficient  sentiment  to  fancy 
the  English  home  you  have  pictured  to  me, 
but  yet  it  is  out  of  the  question  for  me  to  en- 
courage you  further  than  that.  You  had  bet- 
ter give  me  up.  It  is  a  long  chase,  you  see, 
and  I  am  like  a  will-o'-the-wisp.  There  are 
other  girls  who — " 

"I  don't  want  them!"  he  impatiently  and 
almost  savagely  broke  in.  "I  will  wait  for 
you,  wait  for  you — be  it  one  year  or  twenty." 

Hamil  could  see  that  she  was  moved.  Her 
head  drooped  a  little,  and  for  the  moment  she 
did  not  answer.  Quesencourt  pulled  off  his 
cap,  and  turned  it  inside  out,  and  back  again. 
He  seemed  to  be  afraid  of  her,  or  confused 
and  shaken  by  the  upstir  of  his  thoughts. 
But  here  she  raised  her  head  again. 

"If  you  really  wish  it  I  will  do  this,  ask 
me  again  in  a  month,  before  we  leave  the  is- 
land, and  I  will  give  you  a  final  answer. 
That  will  be  a  little  longer  experiment  to  see 
whether  my  trouble  comes  back.  You  are 
as  good  and  constant  as  you  can  be,  and  I — I 

155 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


almost  love  you.  Any  woman  should  be 
proud  to  be  loved  by  a  man  like  you  and  I  am. 
Now  we  must  go  back.  Does  this  promise 
satisfy  you?  It  is  the  best  I  can  do,  and — " 

"Oh,  yes,  yes,"  he  broke  in  again,  "it  does 
satisfy  me ;  I  mean  it  encourages  me,  and  gives 
me  new  hope.  God  bless  you,  dear  one! 
You  have  a  kind  heart,  even  if  you  do  find  it 
so  hard  to  let  me  into  it.  You  '11  let  me  kiss 
your  hand,  won't  you?  It  will  help  to  make 
what  you  have  said  seem  real." 

She  hesitated,  but  only  for  an  instant. 
Hamil  saw  her  hand  go  out,  and  still  more 
distinctly  saw  Quesencourt  bend  over  it. 
Then,  after  a  lingering  moment,  he  straight- 
ened up  again,  and  they  began  to  move  away. 
They  went  in  the  opposite  direction,  or  so  as 
to  take  them  to  the  front  of  the  house  by  the 
westerly  side.  Hamil  started,  and  once  more 
shook  himself  together.  He  likewise,  and  at 
a  pace  faster  than  theirs,  made  for  the  front 
door. 


156 


ALL  came  together  in  the  music  room 
a  few  minutes  later,  Baum  with  his 
harp,  and  Bess  with  her  guitar.  Car- 
men opened  the  piano,  and  Miss  Winrose  put 
some  sheet  music  modestly  on  an  obscure 
chair. 

The  Major  remarked  that  he  was  somewhat 
oppressed  by  his  role  of  audience,  but  that  he 
would  do  the  best  he  could  to  fill  it,  and  set- 
tled himself  in  a  willow  reclining  chair.  He 
was  near  a  corner,  where  Hamil  sat,  and  soon 
began  to  talk  to  the  young  man,  pretty  quickly 
bringing  him  out  of  what  appeared  to  be  a 
mood,  and  this  was  done  before  the  others 
were  giving  them  any  particular  attention. 

"The  harp  is  more  ancient  and  more  hon- 
orable than  the  guitar  or  the  piano,"  Carmen 
said  to  Baum,  "and  so  do  you  begin." 

157 


The  Girl  With  T<wo  Selves 


"But  the  most  ancient  and  honorable  things 
always  come  last,"  he  objected,  "and  therefore 
I  should  not  be  asked  to  begin.  The  ancient 
business  also  includes  myself  personally,  so 
that  I  properly  stay  back  with  my  instrument. 
Say  no  more.  Lead  off  yourself,  and  do  so 
with  that  jingly  thing  from  Kjerulf,  unless 
you  have  thought  of  something  better.  It  has 
danced  its  way  through  my  head  a  hundred 
times  since  last  I  heard  you  play  it." 

"Venerable  age  has  its  claims  on  us,"  Car- 
men politely  acknowledged,  "and  so  I  shall 
comply." 

She  went  to  the  piano,  and  played  a  queer, 
swaying,  tiptoe  thing,  that  was  one  of  the  Nor- 
wegian composer's  folklore  bits.  It  was  the 
music  of  a  song,  but  defined  itself  strangely 
well  in  the  notes  alone,  though  to  be  sure,  it 
needed  a  sympathetic  interpreter,  which  be- 
yond question  Carmen  was. 

Of  course  there  must  be  more,  and  she  gave 
them  rather  a  sober  excerpt  from  one  of  Web- 
er's difficult  concert  pieces. 


A  Concord  of  Sweet  Sounds 

In  the  midst  of  the  respectful  applause  she 
rose. 

"I  don't  feel  spontaneous  tonight,  and  I 
shan't  play  any  more.  I  want  to  hear  other 
people's  music.  Yes,  I  am  one  of  the  barbar- 
ians of  the  island,  and  so  it 's  all  right  for  me 
to  declare  my  wants.  Now,  Mr.  Baum,  you 
and  the  harp." 

"Well,"  he  said,  coming  forward  and 
standing  by  the  instrument,  "then  here  you 
have  us.  But  ach,  is  n't  it  a  little  come-down 
from  a  piano  to  a  jew's-harp?  Don't  say  a 
word.  I  was  thinking  that  out  all  the  time  I 
was  in  my  room." 

He  sat  down,  while  they  applauded  the  pun, 
and  tinkled  his  ringers  over  the  strings.  His 
crinkly  black  locks  had  strayed  down  on  his 
forehead,  and  with  his  soft,  woolly  beard, 
his  broad  nose,  and  his  twinkling  foreign  eyes, 
he  made  up  a  jolly  and  almost  laughable  sort 
of  mountebank.  Carmen  and  Bess,  however, 
as  Hamil  chanced  to  notice,  showed  a  good 
deal  more  interest  and  expectation  than 

159 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


amusement,  and  even  the  Major  had  straight- 
ened up  alertly  in  his  chair. 

Instead  of  beginning  at  once,  Baum  took 
a  sheet  of  music  from  a  roll,  and  opened  it 
with  an  important  air. 

"I  am  going  to  play  this  when  you  encore 
me,  but  not  now.  It  will  go  off  better  then. 
Watch  and  see.  But  first,  I  am  going  to  read 
one  of  the  verses.  I  want  it  to  be  soaking 
into  your  minds  against  I  come  to  it  in  the 
song.  And  notice,  please,  how  swingy- 
swangy  it  is.  It  gallops  its  way  right  across 
the  harp.  The  song,  by  the  way,  is  about  a 
harp.  Now  listen." 

His  look  changed.  All  the  fun  went  out 
of  it,  and  all  seriousness  came  into  it.  In  a 
voice  low  and  distinct,  and  oddly  unlike  his 
usual  one,  he  read: 

Touch  the  strings,  sweep  the  strings, 

Smite  if  thou  wilt. 
It  shall  give  thee  back  lovely  things, 
Lusty  and  joyous  things, 
Battle  and  tempest  things, 
Love  or  a  lilt. 

1 60 


A  Concord  of  Sweet  Sounds 

"Sweet!"  heartily  cried  Miss  Winrose. 
'  We  shall  know  what  to  expect  now  when  we 
get  the  song." 

Carmen  and  Bess  said  praiseful  things  also. 
But  Hamil,  at  first  with  a  surprised  look,  and 
then  with  a  faintly  confused  one,  said  nothing, 
and  sat  up  almost  straight  in  his  place.  As  it 
happened,  the  others  were  not  just  then  notic- 
ing him. 

"The  composer  of  the  words  and  music," 
said  Baum,  "is  a  young  New  Yorker  whom  I 
met  in  Vienna.  We  were  introduced  in  a 
crowd,  and  no  doubt  he  immediately  forgot 
me;  but  I  have  not  forgotten  him.  That  is 
to  say,  I  might  not  know  him  off-hand,  if 
I  was  n't  expecting  to  see  him,  but  as  soon  as 
I  had  time  to  get  him  clear  in  my  mind  he 
would  come  back.  He  is  the  kind  that  is  n't 
easily  forgotten.  His  name  is  John  Hamil." 

But  there  was  no  dramatic  flourish  in  this 
windup,  and  the  speaker  himself  did  not  so 
much  as  glance  towards  Hamil. 

"Why,"  broke  out  Bess  in  surprise,  "he 
11  161 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


wrote  the  little  song  I  was  going  to  sing.  It 
is  written — at  least  I  guess  it  is — in  fourteenth 
century  English — a  sort  of  Chaucer  style. 
The  name  of  it  is  'Sing  Cuccu.'  It  is  queer, 
is  n't  it,  that  we  should  both  happen  to  light 
on  this  one  man's  compositions?  He  does  n't 
seem  to  be  very  famous,  either.  Still,  truth 
is  stranger  than  fiction,  you  know." 

"Well,  there  does  seem  to  be  a  good  deal  of 
Hamil  with  us  just  at  present,"  the  Jew  re- 
marked. "No  harm,  that  I  can  see,  as  things 
stand.  Only,  at  some  future  time,  we  might 
wish  to  overhaul  him  a  little,  and  ask  him  why 
he  gives  us  so  much  of  himself.  It  is  almost 
a  mystery,  don't  you  see.  But  there  are  good 
mysteries  as  well  as  suspicious  ones  in  the 
world ;  for  my  part,  I  am  not  ready  to  be  sus- 
picious." 

Naturally,  there  was  but  one  person  in  the 
room  who  got  more  than  a  rather  puzzling 
generality  out  of  all  this.  Hamil  looked 
squarely  towards  Baum  now,  but  the  Jew  was 
not  looking  at  him. 

Baum  was  at  the  moment  making  a  sort  of 
162 


A  Concord  of  Sweet  Sounds 

dumb  show  of  playing,  his  face  drooped  a 
bit.  All  at  once  his  fingers  met  the  strings, 
and  there  stole  out  a  low,  tenderly  sweet  pre- 
lude. Then  he  raised  his  head,  his  soft  brown 
eyes  lighted,  a  great  throb  came  from  the  harp, 
the  sound  died  again,  and  his  voice,  almost 
throbbing  itself,  and  beginning  low,  but  ris- 
ing in  volume  like  a  tide,  alone  went  on.  It 
was  a  splendid  and  compelling  voice,  and  it 
was  filled  from  register  to  register  with  such 
power  that  none  who  listened  could  find  room 
for  any  sort  of  doubt  or  apprehension.  There 
were  no  hollow  spots.  The  voice  was  alone 
but  for  an  instant.  As  it  swelled  to  its  heights, 
the  harpstrings  tinkled,  they  took  on  volume, 
voice  and  instrument  going  forward  together 
with  inspiring  harmony. 

To  be  more  precise  it  was  a  sort  of  chant, 
but  in  words  that  not  one  of  the  listeners  un- 
derstood. There  was  something  oriental 
about  it,  for  a  guess,  and  the  pitch  was  higher 
than  that  of  most  Western  chants.  Even  so 
it  was  all  the  better  for  his  wide-ranging,  but 
still  well-defined  tenor  voice. 

163 


The  Girl  With   Two  Selves 


There  was  hardly  a  noticeable  finale,  but 
instead  the  weight  and  rush  died  down,  and 
went  into  a  soft  postlude.  Then  it  all  ab- 
ruptly ended. 

There  were  long  breatKs,  ami  little  mur- 
murs of  something  like  bewildered  admira- 
tion, in  the  midst  of  which  Baum  waved  his 
hand  and  said: 

"Perhaps  you  will  want  to  know  what  it 
is.  Well,  I  have  n't  named  it.  When  I  have 
I  will  let  you  know.  But  the  theme  in  the 
rough  is  from  an  old  Hebrew  chant.  I  have 
tacked  on  a  few  barbarisms." 

They  said  some  things  in  answer,  the  feel- 
ing being  too  deep  for  ready  and  flowery 
words.  Hamil  had  moved  his  chair  farther 
out  into  the  room.  He  tacked  on  to  what  the 
others  had  said: 

"Mr.  Baum,  I  believe  now  that  you  are 
lazy,  as  you  say,  for  otherwise  you  would  be 
on  the  stage.  You  have  the  most  glorious 
tenor  voice  I  ever  heard." 

"Thank  you.  That  makes  my  voice  a  lit- 
164 


A  Concord  of  Sweet  Sounds 

tie  proud,  but  does  n't  affect  me.  I  did  n't 
make  the  voice." 

"And  now  give  us  the  harp-song,"  cried 
Bessie  eagerly.  "I  have  kept  in  mind  what 
you  said.  I  have  let  the  words  'soak  in.' ' 

"Very  well.  The  title  of  the  song  is  'The 
Consoler.' " 

Like  the  other,  it  was  in  a  way  a  chant.  He 
made  the  words  very  plain,  and  both  sang  and 
played  low. 

It  ran  in  this  way: 

Keep  the  harp  by  thee,  and  touch  it  when 

The  shadows  creep  too  near. 
Prefer  the  soft  strings  to  the  cheer  of  men; 
It  shall  bring  back  the  angel  of  peace  again — 

Let  it  talk  from  God  to  thy  fear. 

Touch  the  strings,  sweep  the  strings; 

Smite  if  thou  wilt. 
It  shall  give  thee  back  lovely  things, 
Lusty  and  joyous  things, 
Battle  and  tempest  things, 
Love  or  a  lilt 


The  magic  the  music  is, 
White  art  of  God. 

165 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


It  speaks  to  your  soul  from  His, 
Flowers  your  world  from  His; 
Sun  on  your  sod. 


They  could  keep  track  of  this  better  than 
the  other,  and  were  not  bewildered.  So, 
when  he  had  ended,  they  applauded  heartily. 
They  wanted  more,  but  he  shook  his  head. 

"Two  rounds  apiece  is  enough.  It  is  late. 
Miss  Bessie,  let's  have  your  'Cuccu.'  Too 
bad  Mr.  Hamil  is  n't  here,  for  he  is  missing 
a  good  deal  of  appreciation." 

Hamil  began  to  grow  a  shade  irritated. 
There  was  no  need  of  rubbing  the  discovery 
in,  so  to  speak.  However,  Baum  carried  a 
look  that  was  hard  to  fathom ;  it  was  impos- 
sible to  determine  whether  any  definite  pur- 
pose lay  behind  it;  and  besides,  Hamil  fully 
expected  to  have  a  talk  with  him.  He  meant 
to  seek  the  opportunity  if  Baum  should  fail  to 
offer  one. 

Bessie  first  passed  the  music  around.  "You 
must  read  it  so  as  to  let  the  quaintness  soak  in. 
I  thank  you  for  'soak  in,'  Mr.  Baum.  It's 
very  useful." 

1 66 


A  Concord  of  Sweet  Sounds 

"All  right.  But  you  might  have  put  it  with 
better  effect.  Why  did  you  not  say :  'Oh,  Jew, 
I  thank  thee  for  that  word'?  Never  miss  a 
chance  like  that." 

"Everybody  does  n't  have  your  wit,  and  so 
see  the  chance,"  she  answered. 

Meanwhile  the  sheets  were  going  the 
rounds.  Hamil  glanced  at  them  with  the 
rest.  Miss  Winrose  met  his  eye  as  he  passed 
them  along,  and  slightly  and  meaningly 
smiled.  He  could  not  well  help  smiling 
back,  though  in  reality  he  was  hardly  in  the 
mood  for  it.  Things  in  general  were  not  go- 
ing to  his  mind. 

The  sheets  soon  came  back  to  Bessie.  The 
words  of  the  song  were  these : 

The  fowles  of  the  ayre  are  come, 
The  windes  blow  the  warmth  of  spring. 
Fetch  the  pipe  and  tabor  too; 
Raise  the  tune,  and  sing  cuccu. 

The  stranger  from  a  far  countree 
Shall  turn  hym  round,  and  hum  the  song; 
Monks  shall  laugh  as  others  do ; 
Slip  their  cowls,  and  sing  cuccu. 

167 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


With  tossed  caps  the  swains  will  troop, 
The  mayds  fling  garlands  in  the  air; 
Lords  in  mayl  and  knaves  in  blue — < 
Hear  them  laugh,  and  sing  cuccu. 

My  ladye  in  the  castle  gate 

With  hearte  touched,  now  smileth  sweet. 

Doth  she  live  her  youth  anew, 

As  they  sing  cuccu,  cuccu? 

It  is  well  that  thus  they  sing  — 

Sing  cuccu,  cuccu — 
In  the  joyeuse  spring. 

"The  meter  is  peculiar,"  Bessie  observed, 
as  she  took  her  guitar.  "I  suppose  you  all  no- 
ticed it." 

"I  can't  say  that  I  did,"  courageously  spoke 
up  Miss  Winrose. 

"The  last  lines  in  each  verse  are  snubbed," 
said  Baum.  "The  first  ones  jog,  and  the  last 
ones  break  into  a  canter.  I  suppose  that  is 
what  you  mean.  But  I  should  say  that  this 
was  a  good  trick  to  work  up  an  effect." 

"You  see  everything  and  know  every- 
thing!" said  Bess  admiringly.  "Yes,  that  is 
what  I  meant.  The  effect  is  produced  by  be- 

168 


A  Concord  of  Sweet  Sounds 

ginning  the  verses  with  eight-syllable  lines, 
and  ending  them  with  seven." 

She  tuned  a  string  or  two,  and  began  to 
sing. 

Her  voice  fully  bore  out  the  moderate 
praise  that  her  sister  had  once  given  it,  for  it 
was  a  very  fair  contralto.  Besides,  she  sang 
vivaciously,  and  her  virile  youth,  and  bril- 
liant prettiness  wonderfully  helped.  She 
showed  the  effects  of  careful  training  also. 
The  air  itself  was  rather  fetching,  and  so,  in 
all,  the  thing  went  off,  as  the  stock  phrase  is, 
successfully. 

The  encore  song  was  a  ballad,  and  "tuny," 
as  Carmen  was  wont  to  say,  but  it  fared  as 
well  as  the  other. 

Miss  Winrose  was  made  next  on  the  cards, 
and  played  successively,  two  studies  from 
Chopin.  As  her  physical  range  of  the  instru- 
ment was  rather  small,  and  as  her  hands  were 
slight,  she  wisely  favored  a  composer  who 
himself  had  serious  physical  limitations,  and 
who  therefore  sometimes  composed  to  suit  his 
range.  But  on  the  other  hand,  he  was  beau- 

169 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


tifully  delicate,  and  at  times  moving,  and  this 
she  showed  that  she  understood.  It  was  evi- 
dent that  she  knew  what  painstaking  work 
meant,  and  had  not  shirked. 

The  Major  nominated  the  Englishman  for 
the  next  place,  and  he  accordingly  became 
Miss  Winrose's  successor. 

He  knew  little  about  music,  and  in  fact 
played  by  ear,  but  he  dashed  off  "The  British 
Lion,"  and  "Tim  Curley"  in  a  hearty  Eng' 
lish  way,  and  in  a  voice  that  had  strength,  if 
it  lacked  somewhat  of  delicacy  and  sweetness. 
He  was  particularly  able  when  he  came  out 
with — to  give  his  own  pronunciation — "The 
British  leeon  is  a  noble  beast,"  and  ended  with 
the  warning,  "but  beware  how  you  tread  on 
his  tail." 

Lastly,  it  was  Hamil's  turn.  As  he  passed 
Carmen  he  caught  her  expression,  and  again 
saw  that  she  seemed  in  a  way  curious  and  al- 
most puzzled.  He  guessed  at  once  that  she 
was  having  hard  work  to  make  him  seem  oth- 
erwise than  the  Jack  Beauchamp  of  her  Edith 
days,  and  so  non-musical.  But  if  he  was  Jack 

170 


A  Concord  of  Sweet  Sounds 

Beauchamp  in  that  (so  the  odd  thought  now 
ran  through  his  mind)  he  perhaps  seemed 
Jack  Beauchamp  in  nearly  everything  else. 
In  other  words,  he  was  still  to  her  in  effect  a 
fictitious  person,  and  one  of  her  own  imagin- 
ing. It  was  solely  by  an  effort,  and  strictly 
as  an  intellectual  process,  that  she  had  been 
able  to  accept  his  word  that  he  had  some  ways 
and  qualities  that  were  different  from  her  ar- 
tificially constructed  Jack.  All  this  was  at 
least  interesting,  and  he  meant  to  consider  it 
more  carefully  when  there  was  time.  Just 
now  it  went  no  further  than  to  move  him  to 
the  notion  of  making  war  on  Beauchamp,  and 
overthrowing  him  utterly. 

This  could  be  done  in  no  more  effectual  way 
than  in  emphasising  Beauchamp's  rival  as  a 
musical  person,  and  therefore  he  determined 
to  take  pains  now,  and  make  his  performance 
noteworthy,  which  had  not  been  his  idea  at 
first. 

He  began  with  a  fugue  from  Handel,  one 
that  might  tempt  a  careless  player  to  an  easy- 
going sameness,  if  not  monotony,  but  which 

171 


The  Girl  With   Two  Selves 


of  course  was  never  meant  by  the  great  master 
to  have  any  such  treatment.  He  put  life  into 
it  from  the  very  start,  and  yet  never  took  lib- 
erties, and  thoughout  was  chaste,  and  even 
delicate.  He  supposed  that  only  Carmen, 
and  perhaps  the  Jew,  would  understand  and 
appreciate  such  high-class  work,  but  in  re- 
ality he  was  playing  solely  for  her. 

When  he  had  finished  the  last  note  there 
was  general  applause,  but  hers  was  the 
promptest  and  heartiest. 

"Fine!"  she  cried,  "fine!  I  have  heard 
strong  players  do  that  piece,  but  never  so  well. 
You  must  have  felt  it  all  through,  and  then 
have  given  generous  time  to  the  practice." 

"Well,  perhaps  I  was  not  lazy  about  it. 
But  then  I  am  strong,  so  practice  does  not 
count  as  a  bugbear." 

They  called  for  the  second  piece — the  sec- 
ond round,  as  Baum  had  called  it — and  this 
time  he  gave  them  a  Beethoven  sonata,  a  more 
difficult  piece  than  the  first.  It  was  in  B  Flat, 
and  the  time  was  comparatively  fast,  with 
strong  declarations  of  chords,  and  no  chance 

172 


A  Concord  of  Sweet  Sounds 

for  tricks  of  resting,  or  dodging.  Hamil,  as 
before,  did  not  shirk.  Instead,  he  seemed  to 
court  the  difficulties,  and  enjoy  them,  and  he 
did  not  falter  nor  make  a  noticeable  error. 

This  time  it  was  Baum  that  got  in  the  first 
word. 

"I  am  not  much  more  than  a  theorist  at  the 
piano,"  he  said,  "but  I  know  enough  to  be 
sure  that  you  are  an  able  player.  You  are  so 
robust  that  you  seem  to  frighten  the  keys  into 
obeying  you;  yet  at  the  same  time  you  never 
take  advantage  of  them  and  treat  them  with 
any  suspicion  of  brutality." 

"That  is  just  it,"  indorsed  Carmen.  "You 
are  strong,  and  at  the  same  time  delicate.  Oh, 
and  you  interpret  like  a  seer!  I  am  familiar 
with  that  sonata,  for  my  old  teacher  doted  on 
it  as  specially  choice." 

"I  agree  with  them  to  the  best  of  my  poor 
knowledge,"  Miss  Winrose  said.  "I  have 
not  heard  such  playing  before  in  years." 

Hamil  laughed,  and  got  up. 

"I  have  a  sweet  tooth,  so  I  can  stand  a  rea- 
sonable amount  of  taffy." 

173 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


The  others  were  rising  now,  the  concert  be- 
ing over.  In  the  slight  confusion  Carmen 
came  up  to  Hamil. 

Speaking  low: 

"You  are  bothering  me  more  and  more,  but 
I  forgive  you.  I  should  be  willing  to  revise 
all  my  ideas  of  you  if  I  could  hear  lots  more 
of  that  music." 

His  eyes  glowed  a  little  with  satisfaction, 
and  he  smiled. 

"That  is  a  compliment,  and  I  thank  you  for 
it.  Nothing  would  please  me  better  than  to 
play  for  you,  and  to  have  you  play  for  me. 
Why,  if  I  stood  behind  you,  and  you  should 
start  a  few  Hungarian  touches  it  would  al- 
most bring  back  the  steamer.  I  know  this  is 
taboo,  but  I  submit  that  you  broke  over  first. 
You  resurrected  Beauchamp,  and  I  Edith. 
Well,  it  was  only  her  wraith."  He  saw  that 
Miss  Winrose  and  Bess  were  now  giving  some 
heed  to  them,  and  he  perfunctorily  finished: 
"I  am  sure  it  has  been  a  pleasant  evening  for 
all  of  us." 

"You  must  sing  for  us  next  time,  and  that 
174 


A  Concord  of  Sweet  Sounds 

will  make  it  more  enjoyable  still,"  Carmen 
took  the  hint  and  answered. 

The  others  also  invaded  the  little  circle, 
and  nothing  was  left  but  formalities  and  good- 
nights. 

"I  gave  my  friend  Beauchamp  a  good  dig 
that  time,"  Hamil  muttered  to  himself. 

Considering  that  he  felt  towards  Carmen  as 
he  did,  and  that  she  was — as  he  insisted  to  him- 
self— of  so  little  importance  to  him,  his  suc- 
cess seemed  to  give  him  a  surprising  amount 
of  satisfaction. 


175 


LATE  hours  on  the  island  would  be  com- 
paratively early  ones  in  the  city,  and  so 
the  hands  of  the  clock  had  not  far  ad- 
vanced when  Hamil  got  to  bed.     He  slept  a 
generous  number  of  hours,  and  then  found 
that  he  was  early  for  breakfast,  so  he  set  out 
for  a  little  stroll. 

As  he  had  seen  nothing  at  all  of  the  north- 
erly part  of  the  island,  he  headed  in  that  di- 
rection, and  immediately  came  upon  a  path 
that  proved  to  lead  directly  there.  The  way 
was  skirted  by  clumps  of  evergreens  and  a 
few  oaks,  maples  and  birches,  and  was  made 
more  picturesque  by  great  mossy  boulders, 
and  bold  rock-faces,  with  ridges  of  granitic 
buttresses.  For  the  greater  part  the  sea  was 
shut  off,  and  it  seemed  almost  like  a  bit  stolen 
out  of  the  country,  instead  of  a  mere  little 

176 


One  of  Eve's  Daughters 


strip  of  an  ocean-battered  rock.  To  help  the 
illusion,  some  sparrows  chippered  down  out 
of  the  trees,  and  picked  about,  and  fought 
noisy  pettish  duels,  after  the  manner  of  their 
kind. 

But  pretty  soon  he  mounted  a  small  rise, 
and  then  what  there  was  of  the  illusion  van- 
ished. The  ground  became  suddenly  open, 
and  on  every  hand  was  the  sea. 

It  was  not  more  than  an  ordinary  base-ball 
throw  to  the  end  of  the  island  itself,  and  here 
was  a  knob  of  rock,  with  something  of  a  cliff 
below.  In  place  of  the  wood-notes,  and  the 
birds,  the  sea  broke  with  a  leisurely  but  inex- 
orable wash  on  the  iron-hued  rocks.  In  some 
of  the  tiny  caverns  worn  by  the  thousands  of 
centuries  the  floods  now  and  then  became 
penned,  and  broke  free  only  after  a  boiling 
turmoil,  and  a  wild  fling  of  frantic  white 
spume. 

To  the  right  was  the  seaboard  itself,  with 
nothing  but  the  water  rim  for  a  boundary,  and 
towards  this  he  turned. 

There  was  another  low  cliff  here,  also,  and 
12 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


the  top  ran  out  in  a  rounding  table,  almost 
flat,  and  bare  of  everything  except  granite  and 
granite  dust.  Yet  where  the  table  rose  to 
some  higher  rock,  and  a  spur  of  stunted  ever- 
greens, was  a  barkless  dead  tree,  its  trunk 
whitened  and  polished  by  the  weather  till  it 
looked  almost  like  some  gigantic,  fossil  bone. 
Hamil  walked  along  to  it,  and  sat  down. 

The  wind  was  not  strong,  and  it  came  nearly 
off  the  land,  yet  it  had  something  of  a  sweep 
here,  and  made  the  trees  on  the  slope  behind 
him  faintly  rustle,  and  this  joined  with  the 
unceasing  wash  and  seething  on  the  narrow 
strip  of  shingle  below.  Seaward  the  sun  was 
high  enough  to  bring  a  dazzle  off  the  water, 
and  the  sky  had  deepened  in  its  blue  till  out 
a  little  the  sea  had  turned  blue  also,  but  close 
in  to  the  rocks  the  shoal  places  paled  the  backs 
even  of  the  biggest  crests  to  green. 

There  was  little  at  first-hand  except  na- 
ture, for  there  was  not  a  craft  of  any  sort  in 
the  immediate  offing,  and  it  was  only  on  the 
sea-line  itself  that  a  white,  leaning  pillar 
stood  for  a  sail. 

178 


One  of  Eve's  Daughters 


He  took  off  his  cap,  that  the  breeze  might 
the  better  play  through  his  hair — and  per- 
haps too,  out  of  the  unconscious  feeling  of 
coming  a  bit  nearer  to  nature,  an  inward  stir 
of  the  ancient,  barbaric  man,  and  gradually 
forgetting  himself,  slipped  into  a  day  dream. 

At  last  something  broke  in  upon  the  spell, 
and  he  found  that  it  was  a  light  swishing  noise 
among  the  trees  at  his  back.  He  turned,  and 
faced  Miss  Winrose.  She  stood  at  the  top  of 
an  outcropping  ledge,  with  a  branch  that  had 
barred  her  out  still  in  her  hand. 

He  rose,  and  turned  wholly  about,  and  she 
looked  down  and  laughed. 

"Good  morning.  I  have  been  exploring. 
I  did  n't  know  where  I  was  coming  out,  but 
meant  it  should  be  somewhere  by  the  sea.  I 
did  n't  expect  to  find  a  fellow  explorer, 
though." 

"Oh,  well,"  he  said,  "now  that  you  have 
found  him,  come  down.  Let  me  help  you." 

He  took  two  steps  up  the  rock,  and  she 
reached  down  her  hands,  getting  a  strong 
steadying  that  took  her  to  the  level  below. 

179 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


He  followed  her,  and  pointed  to  the  log. 

"See  how  polite  the  ages  are  to  strangers- 
rustic  bench  at  just  the  right  place.     Won't 
you  share  it  with  me?" 

"Oh,  thank  you.  I  don't  mind  if  I  do.  I 
suppose  it  still  lacks  a  few  minutes  of  break- 
fast time.  So  you  are  smart  this  morning, 
the  same  as  myself?  But  it's  fine  and  inspir- 
ing to  get  up  heroically  and  do  it.  Don't  you 
think  so?" 

"Not  to  talk  high,  it  really  is  n't  much  of 
a  sacrifice  for  me.  You  see,  I  am  so  used  to 
it  that  it 's  easy." 

"Why,  I  suppose  that  does  make  a  differ- 
ence. But  after  all,  we  are  not  the  only  smart 
ones.  Miss  McAllister  and  Mr.  Quesencourt 
are  out  also.  I  saw  them  strolling  towards 
the  boat  landing." 

"Oh,  you  did?"  His  look  very  slightly 
changed. 

"Yes.  But  that  is  n't  altogether  surprising, 
is  it?  I  mean  that  they  should  be  strolling 
together?  I  suppose  that  it  was  pretty  nearly 
a  matter  of  course." 

1 80 


One  of  Eve's  Daughters 


"Is  it?"  he  said  laconically.  "I  didn't 
know." 

"You  "didn't?"  She  seemed  surprised. 
"I  supposed  that  of  course  you  must  know. 
You  were  with  the  family  a  part  of  the  time 
when  they  were  abroad?" 

"Yes,  for  a  while." 

"And  though  Mr.  Quesencourt  was  n't 
with  them,  yet  I  should  suppose  that  his  name 
must  frequently  have  been  mentioned.  In 
connection  with  it,  they  naturally — but  this 
seems  too  much  like  gossip.  I  did  n't  mean 
it  for  that." 

"No  harm  done,  that  I  can  see." 

"Well,  I  am  glad  to  hear  you  say  so.  As 
for  what  I  have  said,  I  want  to  explain  that 
I  got  a  part  of  my  information  from  Bess — 
it  came  out  in  the  way  of  chat — and  have 
observed  other  things  myself.  A  woman  has 
quick  perception  for  all  such  news,  Mr. 
Dana." 

"I  know  it,"  he  said,  relaxing  a  little. 
"Yes,  if  I  am  an  old  bachelor  I  have  picked 
up  that  much." 

181 


The  Girl  With   Two  Selves 


"It  does  you  credit.     But  Mr.  Dana — ?" 

"Yes?" 

"You  yourself  have  become  a  puzzle  to  me. 
I  suppose  it 's  bold,  and  all  that,  but  I  should 
terribly  like  to  solve  you.  In  the  first  place, 
you  are  concealing  your  real  name,  and  that 
is  strange,  and  then — and  some  other  things. 
I  thought  that  you  must  take  a  particular  in- 
terest in  Carmen,  but  by  your  manner  you  do 
not,  but  are  rather  indifferent  to  her.  Then, 
if  you  are  not  here  from  friendship,  nor  for 
any  money  reason,  and  as  you  continue  to  hide 
your  identity  from  the  family — " 

"Then  what  in  the  dickens  am  I  here  for? 
Excuse  me,  but  that  is  what  you  mean.  I 
partly  promised  to  explain  it,  and  if  I  had  n't 
you  have,  I  believe,  a  right  to  ask.  I  might 
be  up  to  some  jinks  or  other,  and  you,  as  a 
friend  of  the  family,  want  to  know  about  it. 
Well,  Miss  Winrose,  it  is  all  very  simple. 
You  of  course  understand  the  general  circum- 
stances— how  I  came  to  know  these  people?" 

"Yes,  Itess  has  told  me  that." 

"Very  well,  then.     Of  course  I  started  out 
182 


One  of  Eve's  Daughters 


of  pity,  and  I  am  waiting  now  to  make  sure 
my  job  is  finished.  But  I  was  to  explain 
about  my  disguising  my  name.  I  thought  it 
would  be  less  embarrassing  to  them  if  I  ap- 
peared to  take  the  job  for  money.  If  they 
thought  I  was  above  money  considerations 
they  would  be  more  reluctant  to  call  on  me. 
You  see,  they  had  no  sort  of  claim  on  me,  a 
stranger." 

"Oh,  and  was  that  it?  I  might  have 
guessed,  too,  but  I  was  stupid.  Why,  that 
was  fine  of  you !  You  are  the  very  essence  of 
a  gentleman,  Mr.  Hamil!" 

"Easy!"  he  laughed.  "Put  it  on  a  little 
thinner,  please." 

"I  shan't.     It  ought  to  be  thicker." 

She  shook  her  head  at  him,  and  looked  at 
him  with  defiant  admiration.  Her  blue  eyes 
sparkled. 

His  color  faintly  rose.  She  was  very  at- 
tractive just  at  that  moment,  and  he  was  both 
lonesome,  and  a  mere  flesh-and-blood  man. 
This  in  spite  of  the  lofty  knight-errantcy  with 
which  she  had  invested  him.  But  to  have 

183 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


feelings  is  not  always  to  be  a  fool.  He  merely 
nodded,  and  feigned  to  see  the  uselessness  of 
opposing  her. 

"I  have  silenced  your  guns,"  she  said. 
"Very  well.  Now  I  will  go  on  again.  I 
want  to  ask  about  something  else.  Do  you 
see  any  signs  of  Carmen's  trouble  coming 
back?" 

He  quickly  sobered. 

"No.  But  then,  I  don't  know  mucK  about 
it.  You  must  remember  that  so  far  I  have 
seen  but  one  change  in  her;  she  was  Edith, 
and  is  now  herself." 

"That's  true.  Oh,  but  it  would  be  too 
cruel  to  think  that  she  would  relapse.  I  am 
going  to  have  it  that  she  will  stay  herself,  and 
ultimately  marry  Mr.  Quesencourt.  As  short 
a  time  as  I  have  known  the  two  I  have  figured 
it  all  out;  it  is  my  romance.  Why  not  have 
a  little  one  for  other  people,  if  you  have  none 
for  yourself?"  She  tossed  her  head,  and 
laughed.  But  the  laugh  was  a  bit  nipped  and 
short,  and  her  pretty  mouth  took  on  the  faintest 
turn  of  bitterness. 

184 


One  of  Eve's  Daughters 


"If  people  prefer  to  do  things  vicariously 
of  course  they  can,"  he  answered  seriously. 
"It  must  certainly  be  that  way  with  you  and 
beautifully  done." 

"Thanks  for  the  compliment.  Excellent 
taste  on  my  part  to  introduce  myself — to  drag 
myself  in —  don't  you  think  so?  I  don't  know 
what  made  me.  I  should  sneer  if  I  saw  some 
other  girl  do  it.  But  there  is  that  about  you 
which  somehow  makes  one  frank,  and  brings 
things  out.  To  use  newspaper  English,  you 
inspire  confidence.  Now  don't  deny  that,  be- 
cause it  is  surely  so.  Just  see  how  quickly 
these  people  took  you  in,  and  trusted  you.  It 
is  a  pleasant  gift,  Mr.  Hamil,  even  if  it  is  a 
shade  dangerous." 

Her  lips  took  on  a  sweeter  turn,  and  her 
voice  fell  lower.  Her  look,  though  it  still 
met  his,  was  hardly  so  steady. 

"If  I  listened  to  you  very  long  I  should 
swell  up  like  a  puff-ball,"  he  shook  his  head, 
and  laughed.  Yet  his  eyes  had  lighted  again, 
and  a  fresh,  swift  glance  focussed  her  face  and 
petite  figure.  Not  even  the  little  slender 

185 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


foot,  russet-shod,  and  peeping  boot-high  from 
the  short  skirt,  was  missed. 

"But  it  is  quite  true,"  she  insisted.  "I  say 
again — just  see  how  all  these  people — hard- 
headed  old  father  and  the  rest — took  you  in, 
and  trusted  you." 

"Oh,  now,  perhaps  I  took  them  in,"  he 
laughed.  "The  truth  is,  the  whole  thing  was 
a  business  of  extremity.  They  had  to  do 
something." 

"We  shall  never  agree  about  that,"  she  in- 
sisted, and  she  moved  a  little  in  her  place. 
Now  she  looked  out  to  sea.  She  seemed  so- 
berer, and  more  thoughtful.  "I  want  to  say 
something  about  last  night,"  she  went  on  after 
a  pause.  "Your  playing  was  splendid.  It  is 
another  gift  added  to  all  the  rest.  And  you 
are  a  poet,  too,  and  so  have  imagination.  That 
was  more  than  I  had  guessed.  I  had  sup- 
posed you  were  built  on  practical  lines.  But, 
Mr.  Hamil,  you  have  made  good  use  of  your 
wealth ;  you  have  made  it  serve  your  intellect 
instead  of  your  body.  You  have  been  mas- 
ter, and  not  slave.  Well,  and  that  prevents 

186 


One  of  Eve's  Daughters 


me  from  envying  you  the  wealth,"  she  smil- 
ingly went  on.  "As  a  rule,  I  do  envy  rich 
people.  I  crave  money — lots  of  it.  I  am 
sick  of  scrimping,  and  pinching.  I  have  to 
do  that,  or  I  should  come  out  short.  And 
dear  me,  how  I  want  to  take  a  trip  abroad! 
Oh,  heavens,"  she  broke  off,  "here  I  am  tak- 
ing you  into  my  confidence  again!  Forgive 
me.  The  next  thing  I  shall  hate  you  because 
you  are  such  a  magnet.  You  draw  out  my 
secrets  as  the  loadstone  mountain  drew  the 
nails  out  of  Sinbad's  ship!" 

"My  dear  lady,  if  that  is  so  I  am  base 
enough  to  be  glad  of  it,"  he  said  with  em- 
phasis. "Tell  me  some  more.  I  am  restless 
and  lonesome,  and  shall  thank  God  if  I  can 
be  of  a  little  use.  But  you  speak  about  money, 
and  a  trip  abroad.  If — if — hang  it,  I  don't 
know  how  to  say  it,  but  if  only  you — if  you 
would  let  me — why  it  would  be  a  positive 
favor  to  me — " 

"Oh,  stop!  stop!  No,  I  am  not  offended. 
How  could  I  be?  I  have  only  myself  to 
blame.  No,  you  noble,  knightly  man,  I 

187 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


can't  go  so  far  as  that,  but  I  thank  you  all 
the  same,  and  shall  never  forget  it.  And  I 
am  very,  very  sorry  that  you  are  lonesome. 
To  tell  the  truth,  I  am  a  bit  so  myself,  and  so 
I  know  how  to  sympathize  with  you.  While 
we  are  here  if  my  society  can  in  any  way  help 
you  it  is  at  your  service.  That  is,  to  an  ex- 
tent that  would  not  subject  us  to  misunder- 
standing and  remark.  If  Bess's  college  man 
comes  she  might  not  notice,  and  her  sister  and 
Mr.  Quesencourt  are  doubtless  so  bound  up  in 
each  other  that  they  would  be  blind,  but  'there 
are  others.'  You  understand?" 

"Yes,  certainly.  Thank  you — thank  you 
very  much.  I  shall  wish  to  take  advantage 
of  that." 

But  somehow  this  sounded  a  little  hollow, 
and  as  she  brought  up  Carmen  and  Quesen- 
court again,  a  shade  of  soberness  passed  over 
his  face. 

She  was  looking  at  him  with  more  penetra- 
tion than  he  could  have  guessed.  She  bit  her 
lip,  and  if  he  had  been  watching  her,  as  she 
was  certainly  watching  him,  he  would  have 

188 


One  of  Eve's  Daughters 


detected  a  slight  drawing  together  of  the  deli- 
cately fine  eyebrows.  However,  the  unim- 
paired artless  face  was  back  the  next  instant, 
and  she  pleasantly  said: 

"Then  we  two  orphans  have  a  bit  of  com- 
forting understanding  I  am  grateful  for  my 
part  of  it." 

"And  so  am  I.  Of  course  I  am."  He 
tried  hard  to  be  quite  himself,  but  the  little 
subtle  spell  was  broken.  She  smiled,  and 
rose. 

"I  think  I  will  be  strolling  back.  I  won't 
go  through  the  woods,  this  time,  as  I  have 
lost  my  adventurous  spirit.  I  shall  of  course 
see  you  shortly  at  King  Arthur's  Round 
Table?" 

"Yes,  indeed.     Count  on  that." 

"Well,  good-by  till  then."  She  made  a 
pretty  gesture,  and  passed  around  the  other 
end  of  the  log.  He  saluted  by  touching  his 
uncovered  foretop,  and  she  sauntered  away  to 
the  path  along  the  rocks. 

He  turned  rather  heavily  back,  and  ab- 
sently sat  down  again.  On  her  part,  as  she 

1 80 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


struck  into  the  path,  she  both  frowned  and 
smiled. 

"After  all,"  she  said  softly  to  herself,  "it  is 
a  beginning." 

Left  to  himself  for  a  few  minutes,  Hamil 
slowly  brightened.  He  had  gone  over  her 
talk  about  Carmen  and  Quesencourt,  and  he 
felt  sure  that  she  was  wrong. 

He  now  looked  at  his  watch,  and  turned 
homeward.  He  had  come  among  the  trees, 
and  was  in  the  little  summer  valley,  when  a 
man  rounded  a  turn  of  the  path.  He  wore 
a  wide-brimmed  straw  hat,  and  a  suit  of  al- 
most dazzling  white  duck.  It  was  Mr. 
Baum. 

Hamil  stopped,  and  waited  for  him.  It 
would  be  a  good  time  to  ask  a  few  pressing 
questions. 


190 


CHAPTER  XIII 

DAVID  BAUM 

"X^^V  H,  how  smart!"  Baum  called  out  as 
1      J    he  came  up.     "I  am  just  starting 
for  exercise,  while  you  are  all  in 
fettle,   and   are   coming  back.     But  then,  I 
was  n't  meaning  to  go  far.     In  fact,  break- 
fast is  nearly  ready." 

"That  last  is  good  news,"  Hamil  answered, 
"for  I  am  pretty  wolfish.  But  if  you  don't 
mind,  I  will  turn  about  and  go  with  you  a 
little  way.  There  is  something  I  should  like 
to  speak  about." 

"By  all  means  come  along.  I  can  guess 
what  it  is  you  want  to  say,  and  I  am  entirely 
ready  to  hear  it." 

Hamil  wheeled,  and  they  caught  step. 

"My  cigar  has  gone  out,"  Baum  said,  tak- 
ing a  fresh  one  from  a  case.  "If  you  don't 
mind  I  '11  smoke  and  listen." 

191 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


"You  won't  have  to  listen  very  long,  for 
it 's  a  brief  and  simple  matter." 

"You  '11  have  a  cigar?" 

"Thank  you,  no;  I  don't  smoke." 

"Too  bad.  It 's  a  beautiful  habit.  Just  a 
moment." 

He  started  his  cigar,  and  threw  away  the 
match. 

"Now  I  am  receptive." 

"I  '11  come  straight  to  the  point,"  Hamil 
said.  "I  am  ready  to  tell  you  why  I  am  here 
under  a  false  name.  It  looks  suspicious  that 
I  should  be,  and  if  I  can't  give  a  good  reason 
you  will  be  justified  in  showing  me  up.  But 
before  I  go  on,  do  you  know  the  whole  story 
of  Miss  McAllister's  trouble,  and  how  I  came 
to  be  mixed  up  with  the  family?" 

"Yes,  or  the  substance  of  it.  The  Major 
told  me.  He  feels  very  grateful  to  you.  And 
say,  you  managed  a  fearfully  difficult  situation 
in  grand  style.  There  's  no  doubt  about  it." 

"Thank  you.  That  makes  it  easier  to  go 
on  and  explain." 

"It  was  because  of  my  good  opinion  that  I 
192 


David  Baum 


believed  you  must  have  a  satisfactory  reason 
for  hiding  your  identity." 

"Well,  then,  it  is  a  simple  matter  to  tell 
the  rest.  It  came  to  me  that  I  could  make 
the  family's  situation  a  little  less  embarrassing 
by  pretending  to  be  poor.  They  could  hire 
me,  as  they  would  any  other  nurse,  or  attend- 
ant, and  feel  as  if  they  were  not  asking  too 
much.  It  would  then  seem  more  like  a  fam- 
ily matter,  too,  with  me,  so  to  speak,  inside 
the  lines.  At  least,  that  was  my  thought  at 
the  time,  and  without  much  reflection  I  went 
ahead.  I  still  see  no  harm  in  the  arrange- 
ment, nor  that  it  has  n't  worked  well.  How- 
ever, I  have  no  intention  of  keeping  it  up, 
and  if  Miss  McAllister  continues  to  be  all 
right  I  shall  go  away,  and  later  explain." 

"That's  all  good,"  said  the  Jew  with  em- 
phasis. "Yes,  considerate  of  you.  I  shan't 
butt  in.  Be  sure  of  that." 

"Thank  you  once  more.  Naturally,  I  want 
to  work  this  out  myself,  and  in  my  own  way." 

"Well,  as  they  say  on  the  stage,  the  secret  is 

safe  with  me." 

13  I93 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


"There  is  only  one  other  here  that  knows 
it,"  Hamil  then  explained;  "that  is  Miss  Win- 
rose.  By  a  stupid  mistake  I  gave  myself 
away  to  her,  but  like  you,  she  will  keep  dark." 

"A  woman  and  a  secret?"  said  the  Jew  rais- 
ing his  eyebrows.  "Don't  you  think  they  will 
have  to  part  company?" 

"I  hope  not  right  away.  No,  I  think  that 
Miss  Winrose  is  safe.  I  am  willing  to  trust 
her." 

"OH,  very  well,"  Baum  said  with  a  shrug; 
"you  may  be  right." 

"She  is  a  sort  of  innocent  little  person," 
Hamil  further  commented,  "but  yet  she  ap- 
pears to  have  a  good  deal  of  sense." 

"I  think,"  said  the  Jew  reflectively,  "that 
she  has  lots  of  it.  I  have  noticed  her  some- 
what. But  she  is  more  sophisticated  than  she 
looks,"  he  went  on,  "or  else  I  am  infernally 
mistaken.  Believe  me,  brother,  she  would 
not  be  above  a  little  side-corner  plot." 

"Oh,  no,"  protested  Hamil;  "not  that.  I 
have  thought  of  her  more  as  a  bright  sort  of 
artless  person." 

194 


David  Baum 


"You  had  better  revise  your  judgment  and 
find  a  different  word,"  the  Jew  counseled 
dryly.  "I  am  non-commercial,  but  I  know 
something  about  human  nature.  Particu- 
larly, I  understand  women." 

"On  theory,  or  actual  knowledge?"  asked 
Hamil  skeptically.  "You  have  been  in  love, 
perhaps?" 

"No;  only  touched  with  enough  of  it  to 
make  me  dread  it,"  returned  the  Jew  philo- 
sophically. "And  it  is  just  because  I  view 
it  so  nearly  from  the  outside,  that  I  judge  so 
clearly,"  he  added.  "When  you  want  to 
hang  a  picture  straight  you  don't  stay  close  to 
the  wall ;  you  stand  off." 

"That  sounds  well,"  Hamil  smilingly  ad- 
mitted, "but  nevertheless,  I  am  not  convinced. 
She  has  been  frank  with  me  and  I  don't  be- 
lieve she  is  designing." 

"Perhaps  not,"  said  Baum,  knocking  the 
ashes  from  his  cigar.  "But  something  may 
yet  come  up  to  show." 

Hamil  nodded,  though  incredulously. 

Not  much  more  was  said  till  it  was  time  to 

195 


The  Girl  With   Two  Selves 


turn  back.  Baum  then,  after  what  appeared 
to  be  a  moment  of  hesitation,  remarked: 

"This  whole  business  about  Miss  McAllister 
is  strange.  She  is  strange  on  her  own  account, 
and  she  has  made  strange  and  peculiar  things 
happen.  Just  see  how  it  comes  about  that 
you  are  here.  Next,  there  may  be  another 
presto  change,  and  then  you  take  up  your 
queer  and  unheard  of  part  again!  What  will 
Mr.  Quesencourt  say  to  that — to  see  the 
woman  he  expects  to  marry  fly  to  another 
man?  And  say,  it  is  lucky  that  you  are  not 
in  love  with  the  double,  for  then  it  would  be 
tough  on  you  to  see  her  with  Quesencourt. 
Why,  himmel!  it  would  be  a  bit  tragic!  But 
doubtless  I  am  stirring  up  my  non-commer- 
cial imagination  for  nothing.  There  can't  be 
anything  in  the  real  situation  to  warrant  so 
much  concern." 

What  the  Jew  really  meant,  and  what  he 
secretly  suspected,  of  course  Hamil  did  not 
know.  All  at  once  an  impulse  came  upon 
him,  and  he  acted  on  it. 

"Baum,"  he  said  abruptly,  "it  is  no  dream; 
196 


David  Baum 


I  am  in  love  with  the  shadow  of  this  woman, 
as  Quesencourt  is  in  love  with  the  substance, 
and  God  only  knows  who  will  win.  I  am 
going  to  stay  here,  or  go  elsewhere  with  the 
family,  till  I  find  out.  Now  you  are  wise  to 
the  whole  thing.  I  expect  you  to  keep  it  to 
yourself,  and  certainly  there  is  no  honorable 
reason  why  you  should  n't.  I  shall  be  hon- 
orable, just  as  I  have  been  hitherto." 

Baum  took  out  his  cigar,  and  let  a  long 
cloud  that  he  had  puffed  blow  away.  Non- 
commercial Jew  though  he  might  be,  he  at 
least  had  the  fine  inscrutability  of  the  race. 
Yet  he  was  not  slow  with  his  answer  to  this 
confidence  of  his  friend. 

"You  can  trust  me  all  right.  Oh,  dear,  and 
it  is  the  queerest  secret  that  ever  a  fellow  was 
asked  to  carry! 

"But  never  mind  about  that,  now,"  he  pur- 
sued. "I  want  to  ask  something:  How  can 
you  possibly  expect  to  win?  You  can't  prop- 
erly nor  legally  marry  an  insane  person,  and 
that  is  what  Miss  McAllister's  other  condi- 
tion seems  to  me  to  stamp  her.  And  as  her 

197 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


proper  self  I  don't  understand  that  she  cares 
for  you.  At  least,  she  appears  to  think  a  good 
deal  of  Quesencourt." 

Hamil's  heavy  brows  came  together. 

"Baum,  I  don't  know.  That 's  what 's  the 
matter.  Would  to  God  I  did  know.  Yet  I 
shall  stick  it  out,  and  something  may  happen. 
About  her  feelings  towards  Quesencourt, 
though,  I  think  you  are  a  little  wrong.  I 
have  some  reasons  for  believing  that  she 
does  n't  care  so  much  for  him  as  you  suppose." 

"I  am  not  prepared  to  dispute  that,"  Baum 
answered  thoughtfully.  "But  even  if  so,  it 
does  n't  much  help  your  case.  She  evidently 
cares  more  for  him  than  for  you,  and  you 
have  n't  said  that  you  cared  for  her  at  all.  I 
mean,  of  course,  as  her  proper  self." 

"That  is  partly  true,"  said  Hamil,  b'uf  he 
spoke  a  little  hesitatingly.  "That  is  to  say, 
I  don't  love  her,  and  at  first  I  was  almost  re- 
pelled at  the  sight  of  her.  I  can't  make  you 
understand  that,  probably,  but  in  a  way  it  was 
like  seeing  another  woman  dressed  in  my  dead 
love's  clothes  and  secretly  rejoicing  at  her 

198 


David  Baum 


death.  But  no,  of  course  I  can't  make  you 
understand  that." 

"But  yet  perhaps  I  do,"  said  the  Jew 
quickly.  "I  have  some  imagination,  as  I  told 
you,  and  don't  quite  lack  heart.  But  your  an- 
tipathy has  softened,  as  I  understand  you,  and 
was  mainly  a  first  unreasoning  impulse.  The 
time  has  been  short,  but  perhaps  you  have  be- 
come a  little  used  to  her.  Besides,  your  com- 
mon sense  has  had  time  to  work,  and  you  have 
had  to  admit  to  yourself  that  the  new  person 
is  not  to  blame  for  displacing  the  old." 

"Yes,"  said  Hamil,  but  he  was  not  very 
quick  to  answer,  "you  are  in  a  measure  right. 
I  am  becoming  a  little  used  to  it,  and  I  am 
feeling  more  kindly  towards  her.  But, 
Baum,  I  would  give  the  world  to  see  Edith 
looking  at  me  out  of  those  eyes,  and  feel  just 
one  lightest  touch  of  her  blessed  hand!" 

A  slight  tremor  crept  into  his  voice,  and  he 
turned  his  face  for  a  moment  another  way. 

The  Jew's  long,  soft  hand  slipped  over,  and 
gently  slapped  his  wrist. 

"You  are  non-commercial,  too,  and  you 
199 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


have  a  heart.  But  never  mind,  be  brave. 
As  you  say,  something  may  happen." 

Hamil  felt  out  the  comforting  hand,  and 
silently  gripped  it. 

"Thank  you.  At  least,  it  is  a  relief  to  have 
somebody  to  talk  to.  God  knows  that  at  times 
I  have  been  almost  bewildered." 

He  tried  to  pull  himself  together,  and  with 
one  of  his  dogged  efforts  at  last  succeeded. 
Immediately  after  this  they  came  in  sight  of 
the  house. 


200 


CHAPTER  XIV 

AL  FRESCO 

AT  breakfast  there  was  a  general  con- 
sideration of  the  plans  for  the  day,  all 
being  notified  in  advance  that  nobody 
need  do  anything  that  he  or  she  did  n't  care 
to.     "It  is  a  state  of  freedom  that  borders  on 
anarchy,"  announced  Carmen. 

But  it  soon  appeared  that  a  sail  proposed  by 
Quesencourt  was  going  to  have  the  popular 
vote,  some  trend  towards  socialism  developing 
in  this  connection.  It  seemed  that  the  Eng- 
lishman, who  was  a  yachtman  of  the  old 
school,  had  hired  a  smart  little  sloop,  and 
wanted  to  make  up  a  party  for  a  long  sail. 
It  was  his  idea  to  start  at  once,  and  be  gone 
till  dark. 

After  a  few  minutes  it  turned  out  that  Bess 
would  not  be  counted  in,  as  her  college  friend 
and  his  chum  were  expected,  and  the  Major 

20 1 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


had  some  urgent  matters  about  the  place  to 
see  to.  The  others  shipped  for  the  cruise, 
namely:  Carmen,  Miss  Winrose,  Hamil  and 
Baum.  Quesencourt  was  to  be  skipper,  and 
Hamil,  who  was  something  of  a  sailor,  was 
to  turn  to  before  the  mast.  Baum  knew  noth- 
ing about  a  boat,  but  offered  to  be  "gentleman 
supernumerary,"  which  rather  unusual  berth 
he  was  allowed  to  fill. 

The  sloop  proved  to  be  a  stiff  little  center- 
board,  some  thirty-five  or  forty  feet  long,  and 
rigged  with  a  mainsail,  jib  and  gaff-topsail. 
She  was  decked  in  except  for  a  small  standing 
room,  and  had  wide  washboards.  There 
were  sweeps  laid  along,  so  that,  in  a  pinch, 
something  could  be  done  by  rowing,  but  of 
course  this  would  be  of  account  in  hardly  any 
sort  of  weather  except  a  calm.  Hamil,  who 
was  cautious  by  nature,  noticed  all  these 
things,  understanding  well  that  a  small  sail- 
ing craft,  like  a  horse,  is  "a  vain  thing  for 
safety,"  and  that  "everything  may  happen  at 
sea." 

The  Englishman  was  not  without  prevision, 
202 


Al  Fresco 

either,  and  he  put  aboard  a  spare  lantern,  a 
good  supply  of  oilskins,  an  extra  jug  of  water 
and  a  tin  of  crackers.  People  had  been  blown 
off  shore  before  now,  and  had  stood  in  sore 
need  of  just  such  things  as  these. 

At  last  everybody  and  everything  were 
aboard,  and  the  skipper  and  Hamil  made  sail. 
There  was  a  light  and  rather  fitful  westerly 
breeze,  and  the  sheet  was  eased  for  a  straight- 
away run.  It  was  the  plan  to  cruise  as  far  as  a 
certain  Cucumber  Island,  which  lay  off  to  the 
southeast,  and  which  Carmen  said  would  be 
a  cozy  place  for  a  picnic  dinner.  There  was 
a  fine  little  spring  there,  she  told  them,  and 
trees  enough  for  a  shade. 

The  distance  was  around  fifteen  miles,  and 
at  the  rate  they  were  going,  and  as  they  had 
started  late,  they  would  make  the  island  about 
noon.  The  breeze  quickened  after  a  little 
while,  and  became  a  bit  squally;  but  nothing 
happened  to  bother  them,  or  to  interfere  with 
their  comfort,  and  the  little  sloop  drove  along 
till  she  had  covered  perhaps  half  of  the  dis- 
tance. About  this  time  a  squall  rather 

203 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


sharper  than  the  others  struck  them,  and  as 
the  sloop  bored  into  the  seas,  and  leaped  up 
again  sweepingly,  the  mast  made  a  great  ado 
of  snapping,  and  it  seemed  to  Hamil  that  it 
buckled  a  trifle.  As  the  squall  subsided,  he 
found  that  Quesencourt  had  noticed  the  same 
thing,  for  he  said,  with  a  careless  air,  speaking 
to  Hamil : 

"I  want  to  go  into  the  cuddy  a  moment. 
Will  you  please  take  the  helm?" 

He  was  gone  fully  five  minutes,  and  when 
he  came  out  again  Hamil  saw  that  he  was 
unusually  thoughtful.  He  said  nothing,  how- 
ever, and  Hamil  would  not  disturb  the  gen- 
eral serenity  by  asking  questions,  and  so  the 
matter  for  the  time  ended.  As  it  drew  nearer 
to  noon  the  wind  slightly  died  down,  and  a 
few  other  squalls  that  they  had  were  shorter 
and  less  spiteful  than  the  earlier  ones.  Yet 
now  Quesencourt  told  Hamil  that  it  would 
be  well  to  take  a  single  reef,  and  when  this 
had  been  done  he  steered  more  to  windward, 
though  this  took  them  somewhat  out  of  their 
course.  Though  the  next  squall  was  light, 

204 


A I  Fresco 

Quesencourt  slightly  luffed,  and  so  took  some 
of  the  strain  off  the  mast.  Nobody  but 
Hamil  took  any  particular  note  of  it,  and 
again  they  kept  on.  Finally,  a  little  later 
than  they  had  figured,  they  made  the  island. 

Baum  at  once  came  out  with  the  emphatic 
declaration  that  he  was  barbarously  hungry, 
and  above  all  conventions  of  human  origin, 
so  that  they  would  do  well  to  start  the  dinner 
forthwith;  otherwise,  they  might  find  every- 
thing in  the  baskets  missing.  To  this  the  girls 
answered  with  zealous  delight  that  they 
did  n't  blame  him,  and  in  fact,  felt  just  so 
themselves,  and  upon  that  they  commissioned 
the  men  to  get  stuff  together  for  a  fire. 

Few  things  draw  people  together  like  a 
healthy  out-doors  appetite,  and  the  accom- 
panying rugged  preparations  for  dinner. 
Everybody's  tongue  was  loosed,  time  was  no 
longer  necessary  to  ripen  an  acquaintance,  and 
before  the  coffee  was  off  the  fire  they  were  like 
hotel  piazza  acquaintances  of  a  month's  stand- 
ing. It  may  be  added,  though,  that  Carmen 
did  much  to  bring  this  about,  and  did  it  of 

205 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


set  purpose.     It  was   a  part  of  the  settled 
policy  of  Le  Bijou. 

But  before  all  this  was  reached,  and  in  fact, 
before  they  were  settled  as  to  the  dinner  place, 
Hamil  had  found  a  chance  to  talk  aside  with 
Quesencourt. 

"Found  a  weak  place  in  the  mast,  did  n't 
you?"  he  asked. 

"Yes,  a  bad  check.  It  was  where  I  did  n't 
notice  it  at  the  time  I  first  looked  her  over. 
There  was  some  new  paint  on  it,  and  she  was 
lying  quiet,  with  nothing  to  open  up  the  place. 
Just  a  bit  awkward,  you  see,  for  we  might 
lose  the  mast.  However,  we  must  take 
chances  on  all  these  jolly  goes,  and  I  will  be 
careful,  and  nurse  her  along.  As  we  shall 
be  on  the  wind  all  the  way  back  I  can  keep 
her  very  close,  and  luff  at  every  sharp  touch. 
Mum  's  the  word,  of  course,  or  we  shall  spoil 
the  fun  of  the  girls  and  Mr.  Baum." 

"Sure,  and  that  would  be  too  bad." 

Thus,  with  more  heartiness  than  grammar, 
Hamil  indorsed  the  cool  and  plucky  English- 
man, and  they  returned  to  the  party. 

206 


Al  Fresco 

When  they  came  to  form  the  dinner  group 
Hamil  sat  down  near  Carmen.  He  would 
hardly  have  owned  to  himself  that  he  did  it 
of  set  purpose,  yet  if  he  had  questioned  him- 
self he  would  have  hesitated  to  deny  it.  The 
truth  is,  he  found  his  present  feelings  towards 
her  strangely  confused  and  nebulous.  Per- 
haps this  was  not  strange,  the  circumstances 
considered;  but  yet  it  was  the  fact  that  he  was 
more  at  sea  about  her  now  than  he  had  ever 
been  before.  Nearly  everything  that  had 
happened  for  the  day  had  strengthened  this. 
He  had  at  times  sat  near  her,  and  they  had 
chatted  freely  and  informally.  She  had  shown 
no  sort  of  shrinking  from  him — nothing  what- 
ever of  embarrassment  from  the  old  matters. 
It  was  as  if  they  had  been  blotted  out.  Such 
things  women  can  do,  to  be  sure,  when  men 
can't,  and  Hamil  knew  this;  yet  he  was  sur- 
prised to  see  how  completely  and  domina- 
tingly  she  managed  it.  Perhaps  it  was  an- 
other wonder,  too,  that  she  carried  it  all  off 
in  the  face  of  the  avowed  fact  that  she  did  not 
personally  fancy  him.  This  last  humiliating 

207 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


thought,  it  need  hardly  be  said,  was  never  quite 
out  of  his  mind.  It  hurt — of  course  it  did — 
hurt  his  pride,  and  it  stung  even  more  than 
when  she  had  said  it.  They  had  been  almost 
brutally  frank  with  each  other  then,  and  he  had 
taken  the  cut  as  if  received  in  battle,  scorning 
to  think  of  the  smart.  Now,  conditions  were 
different;  they  had  almost  become  friends. 

Not  unnaturally  he  went  over  again  in  his 
mind  what  he  had  said  to  her,  and  it  helped 
his  pride  to  think  that  he  had  not  spared  her. 
Though  he  had  not  gone  quite  so  near  the 
quick  with  his  thrust,  he  had  let  her  see 
plainly  that  she  was  no  longer  Edith,  and  that, 
in  fact,  she  seemed  almost  like  a  cruel  im- 
postor. Yet  take  it  all  in  all,  he  could  well- 
nigh  wish  that  the  thing  had  not  gone  quite 
so  far;  that  he  had  neither  been  jabbed  nor 
had  jabbed  in  return.  It  would  have  been 
better  to  have  found  everything  out  by  de- 
grees. 

Before  this  proximity  brought  about  by  the 
meal  was  over,  they  had  passed  almost  to  a  real 
tete-a-tete.  The  others  did  not  seem  to  no- 

208 


Al  Fresco 

tice  them,  and  before  Hamil  was  aware  they 
were  talking  of  things  uncommon — at  least, 
as  subjects  for  picnic  dinners.  First,  they 
harked  back  to  music,  and  she  told  him  of  her 
upstirrings  of  rebellion  against  Wagner,  and 
he  in  some  things  agreed  with  her,  in  others 
not.  From  this  they  slipped  over  to  litera- 
ture, and  again  it  was  a  great  figure  that  held 
the  boards — Tolstoi.  His  dissatisfaction  with 
Shakespeare  was  then  comparatively  new  to 
the  outside  world,  and  the  magazines  still 
had  him  under  fire  on  account  of  it.  She  was 
disposed  to  agree  with  him  mildly  on  a  few 
points,  but  Hamil  was  squarely  against  him 
in  all.  In  his  opinion  Tolstoi  had  simply 
passed  from  artist  to  impracticable  altruist, 
and  then  looked  to  find  in  Shakspeare  the  same 
kind  of  altruism.  As  he  did  not  he  con- 
demned. But  Shakespeare  never  professed  to 
drop  art  for  ethics,  and  Tolstoi  himself  did 
not  till  he  was  so  old  that  his  blood  cooled, 
and  Shakespeare  wrote  and  died  before  com- 
ing to  that  age.  This  was  Hamil's  final 


argument. 

H 


209 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


But  here  the  Jew  "butted  in,"  having 
caught  Hamil's  little  peroration,  and  observed 
that  he  himself  was  a  reformer,  and  that  it 
was  not  good  for  the  digestion  to  mix  Shake- 
speare and  Tolstoi  with  cold  chicken. 

The  two  did  not  go  into  this  deep  water 
again,  and  in  fact  had  no  more  opportunity 
for  side  talks. 

When  it  was  over,  and  they  were  all 
finally  on  board  again,  Hamil  found  that 
Miss  Winrose  was  this  time  his  nearest  neigh- 
bor. She  had  noticed  him  rather  carefully 
while  he  was  carrying  on  his  dialogues  with 
Carmen,  but  he  had  not  in  turn  noticed  her. 
At  other  times,  however,  he  had  chatted  with 
her,  and  they  had  talked  in  the  ordinary  criss- 
crossing of  the  dinner  persiflage.  Now  she 
seemed  to  have  taken  the  seat  near  him  by  ac- 
cident, though  she  smiled  engagingly,  and 
moved  a  bit  nearer,  as  if  she  did  not  quite 
catch  his  words  as  he  spoke  to  her. 

Somehow  or  other  he  was  very  soon  ad- 
dressing himself  more  to  her  than  to  anybody 
else,  though,  in  a  light  way,  and  not  as  he  had 

210 


Al  Fresco 

talked  with  Carmen.  But  for  that  matter, 
the  etiquette  of  shipboard  would  not  have  al- 
lowed such  a  withdrawn  affair.  She  was, 
nevertheless,  very  pleasant,  and  managed  to 
a  degree  to  interest  him.  She  had  a  way  of 
throwing  out  .little  suggestions,  and  making 
tentative  remarks,  and  then  waiting  with  ex- 
pectant eyes,  and  deferential  eagerness  for  his 
answers.  It  flattered  him,  and  he  could  not 
help  it.  At  the  same  time,  he  had  a  dim 
sense  that  it  was  just  a  trifle  absurd,  and  per- 
haps not  wholly  sincere.  He  felt  this  some- 
times when  he  began  to  answer,  but  by  the 
time  he  was  arranging  his  thoughts  into  words 
he  felt  that  he  was  really  an  oracle  that  was 
rather  worth  while,  and  so  ended  with  as 
much  seriousness  as  the  subject  would  per- 
mit. 

Meanwhile,  Carmen  was  sitting  near 
Quesencourt,  and  though  her  manner  was 
now  rather  subdued,  and  he  seemed  preoccu- 
pied, they  talked  occasionally,  and  particu- 
larly when  Baum  was  having  something  to 
say  to  the  other  two,  or  was  sentimentally 

211 


The  Girl  With  TIVO  Selves 


wrapped  in  a  short  sea  study.  Once  Hamil 
— out  of  the  tail  of  his  eye,  as  sailors  say — 
noticed  that  Carmen  gave  him  rather  a  long 
glance,  and  he  fancied  that  it  was  slightly 
questioning,  though  about  what  he  could  not 
guess.  It  took  his  attention  for  the  moment 
from  Miss  Winrose,  and  he  had  to  ask  her  to 
repeat  a  question  that  he  was  conscious  she 
had  put  to  him. 

All  this  went  on  before  the  vessel  had  made 
a  great  start  on  her  way  back.  Soon  after- 
wards the  wind  stiffened,  the  squalls  dropped 
disagreeably  down  on  them  again,  and  there 
was  something  to  notice  besides  themselves 
and  what  was  inboard.  It  was  then  that 
Hamil  was  reminded  of  the  weak  mast,  and 
that  they  had  no  motive  power  of  any  conse- 
quence except  their  sails.  He  looked  at 
Quesencourt,  and  saw  that  the  Englishman 
was  worrying,  though  was  doing  his  best  to 
keep  it  to  himself. 

It  speedily  appeared  that  he  had  cause  to 
worry.  The  windward  sea  was  now  often 
green  with  squalls,  and  lashed  white  where 

212 


Al  Fresco 

they  bit  the  water.  The  wind  made  more 
noise,  and  made  it  longer,  and  from  wildly 
whistling  outside  deepened  to  an  ominous 
roar  where  it  was  caught  in  the  canvas.  No- 
body was  saying  much  now. 

A  still  heavier  squall  blew  down,  and  this 
time,  though  Quesencourt  promptly  luffed, 
the  craft  jarred  under  the  shock,  and  was  slow 
in  filling  away. 

"Mr.  Hamil,"  Quesencourt  said — and  he 
tried  to  speak  coolly,  and  with  no  fuss — 
"won't  you  be  so  kind  as  to  fetch  the  hatchet? 
You  '11  find  it  just  inside  the  cuddy  door,  on 
the  right.  It  is  in  a  becket." 

Hamil  dived  inside,  and  brought  it  out. 

"Thanks."  Quesencourt  put  it  down  at 
his  feet. 

"If  you  please,"  said  Miss  Winrose  anx- 
iously, "what  do  you  want  with  the  hatchet? 
!We  are  not  going  to  be  wrecked,  are  we?" 

"I  hope  not,"  Quesencourt  answered;  and 
he  pluckily  smiled. 

"Then  why?" 

"Well,  to  tell  the  truth,  the  mast  is  a  little 
213 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


weak,  and  in  one  possible  contingency  we 
might  have  to  cut  it  away.  Or,  if  it  went  of 
itself,  it  might  be  necessary  to  clear  it  from 
the  rigging.  Don't  worry,  though,  for  noth- 
ing of  the  kind  is  very  likely  to  happen." 

Baum  stroked  his  woolly  beard,  and  looked 
in  his  subtly  penetrating  way  at  the  speaker. 
Though  the  Jew  was  no  sailor,  he  readily 
guessed  that  the  Englishman  was  hiding  a 
part  of  the  truth. 

But  they  did  not  have  time  for  much  more 
talk,  or  worrying.  Another  squall  tore 
down,  fairly  screaming,  this  time.  Quesen- 
court  set  his  lips,  and  shoved  over  the  tiller. 
Hamil  had  meanwhile  jumped  to  the  main 
sheet. 

But  what  followed  was  a  very  brief  piece 
of  business,  and  nobody  on  board  had  time 
to  think  much  about  it.  As  the  sloop  rolled 
into  the  wind  the  peppering  squall  almost 
blinded  the  company,  and  they  stooped  to  it. 
The  brave  little  craft  sustained  herself,  the 
weight  of  the  thing  passed,  Quesencourt  put 
up  his  helm- — and  just  then  the  mast  went! 

214 


CHAPTER  XV 

CAST  AWAY 

IN  the  midst  of  the  pitching  and  tumbling 
that  followed  Quesencourt  snatched  up 
the  hatchet  and  whacked  away  at  the 
shrouds.     Miss  Winrose   had   lost  her  bal- 
ance,   and    fallen    upon   her    knees    with    a 
scream,  while  Carmen,  turning  very  white, 
seized  Hamil's  arm.    The  Jew  squatted  low 
in  the  boat. 

But  very  quickly  Quesencourt  had  cut 
away  all  the  raffle  but  the  forestay,  and  the 
boat  bounced  her  way  around,  and  trailed  at 
the  limit  of  her  sea-anchor. 

Quesencourt,  dropping  the  hatchet,  drew  a 
long  breath  of  relief. 

"We  're  all  right  now,"  he  said.  "Just  as 
well,  though,  that  did  n't  take  us  in  the  mid- 
dle of  the  squall." 

215 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


Carmen  had  meanwhile  released  Hamil's 
arm,  and  Miss  Winrose,  silent  but  white, 
staggered  up.  Hamil  instantly  caught  her, 
and  steadied  her  to  a  seat.  Baum  muttered 
something  in  German,  and  came  out  of  his 
crouch  looking  a  little  bewildered. 

"YouVe  left  that  stuff  for  a  drag,  I  sup- 
pose?" Hamil  said  questioningly,  nodding  to- 
wards the  mast  and  its  raffle.  He  was  the 
only  one  steady  enough  to  meet  Quesencourt's 
remark  with  an  answer. 

"Yes,"  Quesencourt  said;  "it  is  what  we 
need  just  now." 

"Oh,  dear!"  Miss  Winrose  sighed,  "I 
thought  we  were  never  going  to  need  any- 
thing any  more." 

Carmen  put  her  hands  for  an  instant  to  her 
face. 

"There!"  she  said,  taking  them  down  again, 
"I  believe  I  am  steady  again.  What  next, 
Mr.  Quesencourt?  With  the  mast  gone,  I 
suppose  we  shan't  capsize ;  but  how  are  we  to 
get  back?" 

"I  can't  answer  that  question  just  now,"  he 
216 


Cast  Away 

said;  "but  before  we  are  through  we  shall 
fetch  it  about.  I  beg  you  won't  worry." 

He  cast  a  look  to  leeward,  then  came  over 
and  sat  down  by  her.  With  no  resistance  on 
her  part,  he  took  one  of  her  hands  and  reas- 
suringly patted  it. 

"We  shall  come  to  no  harm,  but  we  may 
have  to  knock  about  a  bit  before  we  fetch 
back.  I  should  like  to  land  on  some  island, 
if  only  a  little  deserted  one,  for  of  course  I 
don't  want  to  go  any  farther  to  sea  than  nec- 
essary. Just  now  we  seem  to  be  heading  for 
open  water." 

"Let  me  look,"  she  said,  rising.  She  faced 
aft, — it  must  be  remembered  that  the  hulk  was 
proceeding  stern  foremost, — and  took  a  long 
look  at  the  seaboard. 

"We  can't  get  back  to  Cucumber  Island," 
she  then  announced,  "but  there  's  a  nest  of 
small  islands  a  little  farther  out.  There 
they  are.  We  are  not  heading  straight  for 
them,  but  would  n't  it  be  possible  to  alter  the 
course  with  the  oars?" 

All  hands  were  standing  up  now,  though 
217 


The  Girl  With  T<wo  Selves 


Miss  Winrose  was  clinging  to  Hamil,  and 
Carmen  was  having  the  support  of  Quesen- 
court's  hand,  and  all  were  looking  eagerly  for 
the  islets.  They  made  them  out  at  once,  and 
by  that  time  Quesencourt  had  answered  Car- 
men's question.  "Yes,"  he  told  her,  "we 
could  alter  our  course  considerably  with  the 
sweeps.  The  wind  is  n't  very  strong,  and  the 
squalls  won't  bother  us  in  this  shape  as  they 
did  before." 

There  was  a  suspense  now  of  some  minutes, 
but  after  that  Quesencourt  was  prepared  with 
a  definite  plan. 

"We  can't  do  better  than  to  try  for  one  of 
those  little  islands.  The  best  one  will  be  the 
most  westerly,  and  where  you  can  see  a  little 
opening,  or  bight.  When  the  right  time 
comes  we  will  have  Mr.  Baum  cut  away  the 
drag,  and  you  and  I,  Mr.  Dana,  will  take  the 
oars.  We  shan't  swamp  getting  around,  and 
after  that  we  can  sufficiently  control  her." 

"All  right,"  Hamil  agreed  with  inspiring 
heartiness. 

218 


Cast  Away 

The  time  seemed  long  before  Quesencourt 
gave  the  signal  to  Baum.  The  hatchet  fell, 
and  the  wreck  lifted  her  head  on  high,  and 
began  to  drop  away.  In  a  twinkling  the  two 
powerful  men  were  tugging  at  the  sweeps. 
They  must  take  the  wind  on  the  quarter,  with 
no  sail  to  steady  the  clumsy  hulk,  and  with 
tons  of  weight  to  control  so  there  was  going 
to  be  plenty  to  do. 

Baum  offered  to  steer,  but  by  the  way  he 
spoke  it  was  clear  that  he  had  little  idea  of 
what  steering  meant.  In  a  moment  Carmen 
grasped  the  tiller.  "I  know  how  to  steer  a 
boat  going  with  oars,"  she  said. 

"Thank  you,"  the  two  men  answered  in 
chorus. 

She  was  of  material  help,  though  at  times 
the  lifting  and  rolling  of  the  heavy  craft 
balked  everything  she  could  do.  By  and  by 
Baum  took  hold  with  her,  and  helped  to  fur- 
nish— as  he  afterwards  put  it — the  "unintelli- 
gent brawn." 

But  with  everything  that  they  were  doing, 
219 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


it  began  to  look  doubtful  whether  they  could 
fetch  the  split  islet. 

Hamil  half  rose,  and  glanced  over  his 
shoulder. 

"We've  got  to  improve  on  this.  Mr. 
Quesencourt,  pull  a  little  harder,  if  it  does 
use  up  some  of  your  reserve  wind.  Miss  Mc- 
Allister, steer  wholly  with  him.  Mr.  Baum, 
there's  a  small  oar  in  the  cuddy.  Bring  it 
out,  please,  and  row  on  Mr.  Quesencourt's 
side.  I  am  going  to  put  in  some  more  pow- 
der." 

Quesencourt  looked  a  little  surprised,  and 
obviously  doubtful,  but  he  prepared  to  carry 
out  his  part  of  the  suggestion.  Baum  rushed 
in,  and  brought  out  the  oar.  He  found  a 
place  to  ship  it,  and  braced  his  feet.  Mean- 
while, Hamil,  who  was  in  an  outing  shirt, 
with  no  coat  or  vest,  unbuttoned  the  shirt  at 
the  throat  and  at  the  wrists. 

"All  right,"  he  shouted,  as  he  saw  that  they 
were  ready.  In  a  moment  his  great  body 
swayed  backward,  and  the  huge  oar  flashed, 
and  was  buried  far  back. 

220 


Cast  Away 

He  was  not  very  skillful,  especially  with 
such  an  oar  as  this,  but  he  knew  enough  to 
make  the  blade  bite,  and  to  recover,  and  the 
rest  was  sheer  animal  strength. 

Before  he  had  taken  half  a  dozen  strokes 
the  look  on  Quesencourt's  face  changed,  and 
was  succeeded  by  astonishment.  He  got  a 
little  better  brace  for  his  feet,  and  put  still 
more  "beef"  into  his  stroke.  But  though 
Hamil  had  the  laboring  oar,  and  though 
Baum  was  rowing  on  the  weather  side,  and 
Carmen  had  her  helm  hard  up,  the  boat's  nose 
gradually  worked  up  into  the  wind.  By  this 
time  they  had  all  noticed  the  sudden  respon- 
sive lift  of  the  otherwise  sluggish  mass  every 
time  that  Hamil  strained  back  on  his  oar. 
His  strength  must  be  something  amazing. 
Finally,  the  head  of  the  boat  was  so  high  that 
he  had  to  slack  a  little. 

But  at  last  they  had  the  reward  of  so  much 
zeal  and  hard  work.  By  the  time  they  were 
close  to  the  islet  they  were  fairly  to  windward 
of  it,  and  could  ease  up,  merely  keeping  her 
course  straight. 

221 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


"Well,  now,  but  that's  jolly  hard  work," 
panted  Quesencourt  as  he  leaned  forward  on 
his  oar.  "Shoot  me,  but  I  am  nearly  done 
up !  I  say,  Dana,  you  must  be  stronger  than 
one  of  your  American  grizzlies!" 

Hamil,  who  was  in  much  better  wind  than 
the  admiring  Englishman,  merely  smiled. 
The  fact  was,  he  was  not  only  very  strong,  but 
had  uncommon  powers  of  endurance.  He 
had  lived  a  clean,  wholesome  life,  and  had 
found  means  and  time  to  gef  considerable  ex- 
ercise, even  while  traveling,  and  otherwise 
knocking  about. 

Poor  Baum  was  so  completely  out  of  wind 
that  he  could  not  speak,  and  his  hands  had  be- 
gun to  blister.  Even  Carmen,  what  with  tug- 
ging at  the  stiff  tiller,  and  the  mental  strain, 
was  pretty  nearly  fagged  out.  Only  Miss 
Winrose,  a  passenger,  had  come  through  the 
mishap  entirely  fresh. 

The  hulk  slid  forward  on  the  seas,  passed 
the  tiny  capes  that  defined  the  entrance  to  the 
haven,  and  rolled  seething  onward  amongst  a 
thick  growth  of  rushes,  and  so  to  a  scallop  of 

222 


Cast  Away 

sand  and  runs  of  gravel  and  scrubby  bushes. 
They  had  already  hauled  up  the  center-board, 
and  the  round-built  hull  slid  ahead  through 
the  rushes,  losing  speed  every  instant,  and  at 
last  drove  her  nose  into  the  spit  of  sand,  stop- 
ping with  a  tremendous  jar,  where  it  instantly 
heeled  over. 

They  had  been  prepared  for  this  However 
by  holding  on  fast.  Quesencourt  had  steadied 
Carmen,  and  Hamil  Miss  Winrose.  Baum 
was  on  his  knees,  clinging  to  the  center-board 
well.  Still,  the  shock  was  so  great  that  the 
Englishman  and  Carmen  were  thrown  to 
hands  and  knees,  and  Hamil  and  his  charge 
knocked  into  the  rail.  Baum  alone  kept  his 
anchorage. 

The  girls  cried  out  in  relief,  and  the  men 
helped  them  out  over  the  bow,  and  upon  some 
rocks.  The  hulk  had  forced  her  way  so  far 
that  they  had  a  perfectly  dry  landing. 

"Let 's  find  a  better  place  than  this,"  said 
Quesencourt.  "There  's  a  little  break  in  the 
bushes  just  by  you,  Mr.  Baum.  Can't  we  go 
that  way  to  higher  ground?" 

223 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


"We  '11  see.  Who  follows  me  leaves  hope 
behind.'  No,  that  is  n't  just  it,  is  it?  Well, 
never  mind.  Follow  me,  ye  wrecked  ones, 
just  the  same." 

With  this  brave  attempt  to  be  cheerful,  the 
man  pushed  forward  into  the  little  break,  and 
the  others  trooped  after. 

It  did  prove  to  lead  to  much  higher  and  bet- 
ter ground,  and  that  at  once.  They  came  out 
on  a  low  summit,  which  was  the  cap  of  the 
island.  It  was  mainly  ledge  and  iron-colored 
boulders,  but  there  were  some  grass  and 
bushes,  and  a  respectable  clump  of  low  ever- 
green trees.  Here  they  faced  the  southern 
seaboard. 

"Oh,  this  is  n't  so  bad,"  declared  Hamil, 
backing  up  the  Jew's  plucky  beginning. 
"We  can  get  along  all  right  till  we  are  taken 
off." 

"Oh,  must  we  wait  for  that?"  asked  Miss 
Winrose,  looking  blank.  "Can't  we  repair 
the  boat?" 

"Nothing  to  make  a  new  mast  of,"  ex- 
plained Quesencourt,  "and  no  sails  if  we  had." 

224 


Cast  A<way 

"But  could  n't  you  take  out  the  ballast  and 
row?"  she  persisted. 

"Doubtless;  but  it  would  be  as  a  last  re- 
sort," he  replied. 

"You  see,"  Quesencourt  further  explained, 
"the  distance  is  rather  great,  and  the  boat,  even 
with  the  ballast  gone,  would  be  heavy  and 
clumsy.  Besides,  the  prevailing  winds  are 
now  from  the  west  and  northwest,  so  that  we 
should  have  those  against  us.  Then  again,  it 
is  altogether  probable  that  the  forward  part 
of  the  vessel  is  seriously  injured.  No,  I 
should  say  that  it  would  be  the  best  way  to 
build  a  signal  fire,  and  run  up  a  distress  flag. 
We  have  one  flag  with  the  national  colors,  and 
we  can  show  that  union  down.  That  always 
means  distress.  There  are  so  many  vessels 
going  and  coming  that  it  would  n't  be  long  be- 
fore one  would  see  the  flag,  and  come.  This 
is  supposing  that  the  Major  doesn't  find  us 


sooner." 


"I  see,"  she  said,  now  convinced.  "Oh", 
well,  we  have  something  to  eat  and  drink,  and 
it 's  mild  weather,  so  of  course  we  shan't  suf- 


16  225 


The  Girl  With   Two  Selves 


fer.     And  in  fact" — her  eyes  were  lighted  a 
little — "it  will  be  a  grain  romantic." 

She  glanced  up  at  Hamil  with  the  fullest 
innocence  and  child-like  simplicity  of  a  guile- 
less face.  Unfortunately,  he  was  just  then 
looking  in  another  direction. 

It  was  Carmen  who  was  at  the  moment  tak- 
ing his  attention.  She  looked  troubled. 

"I  am  thinking  how  papa  and  Bess  will 
worry,"  she  said.  "When  we  don't  appear, 
even  late  into  the  night,  they  will  know  that 
something  has  gone  wrong." 

"And  as  soon  as  it  is  light  they  will  take  the 
launch  and  start,"  Hamil  assured  her,  "and 
before  noon  they  will  find  us.  They  will  see 
our  smoke  and  guess  what  has  happened." 

"Oh,  do  you  think  so?"  Carmen  brightened. 
"You  are  splendid  to  be  so  comforting." 

"Thank  you,  but  I  am  sincere.  Wait  and 
see  if  I  am  not  right.  I  have  just  been  think- 
ing about  it,  and  it  seems  clear  and  reason- 
able." 

"Then  I  '11  take  fresh  courage.  You  will, 
too,  won't  you  Miss  Winrose?" 

226 


Cast  Away 

"One  of  the  first  things  that  Robinson 
Crusoe  did  after  he  got  ashore,"  put  in  Baum, 
"was  to  look  after  the  grub.  Why  not  we  do 
it?  Had  n't  we  better  get  everything  we  shall 
be  likely  to  want  through  the  night  out  of  the 
vessel?" 

"There 's  Hme  enougK  for  it,"  said  Quesen- 
court;  "but  still,  we  might  as  well  do  it  now. 
Besides,  the  water  may  yvork  its  way  into  the 
cuddy." 

So  the  tKree  men  went  back  to  trie  wreck, 
and  brought  ashore  about  everything  that  the 
cuddy  contained.  This  gave  them  plenty  of 
food  and  water,  with  a  tarpaulin,  the  oilskins, 
and  some  other  things  that  might  come  in 
handy  at  night.  It  was  then  proposed  by 
Baum  to  make  the  girls  a  bower,  and  with  the 
aid  of  the  tarpaulin  this  was  done.  A  clump 
of  low-branched  evergreens  was  the  frame. 
Next,  Carmen  suggested  that  they  start  their 
signal-fire  and  hoist  their  distress-flag,  and 
this  was  instantly  agreed  to.  They  built  the 
fire  on  a  little  open  point,  and  fastened  the  flag 
to  the  top  of  a  lone  pine  close  by.  They  cut 

227 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


away  the  branches  immediately  below  the 
flag,  that  it  might  be  the  more  conspicuous. 

Quesencourt  had  a  spyglass,  and  Hamil 
had  brought  along  a  pair  of  field-glasses,  so 
that  now  they  had  something  to  do  in  looking 
out  for  vessels.  This  helped  to  interest  the 
girls  anyhow,  and  take  their  attention,  and  so 
was  bound  to  be  time  well  spent.. 

But  they  got  no  direct  and  tangible  results. 
There  were  more  or  less  sails  in  view,  but 
nothing  seemed  to  be  bound  their  way,  and  the 
only  steamer  that  came  into  range  was  one 
bound  nearly  east,  and  that  soon  lost  its  white 
bulk  and  melted  away  on  the  dusky  sea-line. 
No  launches  or  other  like  small  craft  came  in 
sight  at  all. 

After  a  while  the  girls  got  a  little  discour- 
aged; and  Miss  Winrose  declared  she  was 
sleepy  and  was  going  to  the  bower  for  a  nap, 
while  Carmen  strolled  off  in  the  direction  of 
the  little  bight,  where  their  wrecked  boat 
was.  That  quarter  faced  home,  which  doubt- 
less she  was  worryingly  thinking  about  just 
then.  In  a  short  time  it  would  be  nightfall, 

228 


Cast  Away 

and  the  folks  at  home  would  look  for  them. 
It  was  the  plan  to  return  not  later  than  dark. 
There  was  no  machinery  to  play  them  false, 
the  winds  had  been  sufficient  for  good  sailing, 
and  never  extremely  heavy,  so  that  a  great  de- 
lay would  be  hard  to  account  for.. 


229 


CHAPTER  XVI 

ALTER  EGO 

OF  the  men,  Baum  betook  himself  to  his 
pipe,  and  stretched  out  comfortably 
under  a  tree,  while  Hamil  and  Ques- 
encourt  for  a  time  kept  up  a  perfunctory  gog- 
gling with  their  glasses. 

The  Englishman,  however,  at  last  put  aside 
his  binoculars  and  rather  glumly  fished  up  a 
cigar.  Hamil,  not  caring  for  such  solace  or 
beguilement,  and  being  withal  restless,  idled 
down  to  the  waterside.  At  present  with  a 
moderate  southerly  wind  stirring,  and  the  heat 
being  pretty  well  out  of  the  air,  he  could 
cruise  in  this  direction  with  comfort. 

There  was  a  small  bit  of  shingle  near  the 
northerly  head  of  the  islet,  and  this  followed 
a  wide  cleft  between  some  great  ledges  that 
ran  out  into  the  sea  itself,  and  finally  appeared 
to  join  another  tiny  beach  just  around  the 

230 


Alter  Ego 

westerly  bend.  Hamil  passed  through  the 
cleft,  but  found  that  there  was  some  deception 
about  the  continuation  of  the  beach,  for  al- 
most at  once  it  stopped  short,  and  ended 
against  the  flank  of  a  great  mass  of  granite 
rock. 

But  he  found  something  more  interesting 
than  the  beach  to  look  at,  for  Carmen  Mc- 
Allister was  sitting  on  the  top  of  the  rock. 

She  was  looking  towards  the  water;  he  had 
not  made  noise  enough  in  walking  to  rise 
above  the  wash  and  tumble  of  the  sea,  so  that 
she  was  unaware  of  his  approach.  He  could 
turn  back,  therefore,  and  not  seem  to  intrude. 
This  he  started  to  do,  but  stepped  on  a  piece 
of  driftwood,  which  snapped,  producing  a 
sound  distinctly  different  from  that  of  the 
waves.  She  glanced  quickly  around  and  saw 
him. 

"Excuse  me  for  seeming  to  be  on  your 
track,"  he  apologized,  "but  I  did  n't  know  that 
you  had  come  around  here.  I  was  merely 
poking  about  trying  to  kill  time." 

"It's  all  right,"  she  said  pleasantly.  "I 
231 


The  Girl  With   Two  Selves 


am  not  sorry  to  have  company.     The  fact  is, 
I  was  growing  rather  blue  and  poky." 

She  seemed  to  take  it  for  granted  that  he 
would  join  her,  so  he  promptly  scrambled  up 
the  rock  and  did  so.  She  was  sitting  on  a  kind 
of  natural  bench,  such  as  the  seas  now  and 
then  take  the  notion  to  carve  out  in  the  course 
of  a  few  hundred  thousand  years,  and  there 
was  plenty  of  room  for  him. 

"If  I  can  cheer  you  up,"  he  plucked  up  a 
gay  air  to  assert,  "I  shall  be  worth  while  and 
shall  be  glad  I  came.  I  can  guess  what  the 
trouble  is,  for  naturally  you  are  thinking  of 
home,  and  how  the  folks  will  worry.  I 
would  n't  let  that  take  hold  of  me  overmuch, 
for  I  don't  think  it  will  be  as  bad  as  you  sup- 
pose. Your  father  and  Bess  will  make  al- 
lowance for  small  accidents,  and  though  of 
course  they  will  be  anxious,  I  don't  think  they 
will  seriously  worry.  And  in  any  case,  now 
that  the  wind  has  worked  to  the  south,  we 
may  be  able  to  make  our  own  way  back.  I 
don't  think  the  sloop  is  very  bad  below  the 
water-line ;  if  she  is  n't,  and  we  can  get  her 

232 


Alter  Ego 

off,  we  can  rig  a  jury-mast.  The  tarpaulin 
will  answer  for  a  sail." 

"That  sounds  well,"  she  brightened  a  trifle 
and  responded.  "Yes,  I  was  just  then  think- 
ing of  father  and  Bess,  and  how  they  would 
worry." 

"There  's  something  or  other  black  at  night 
— what  is  it?  Oh,  yes,  sorrow. — 'But  joy 
cometh  in  the  morning.7  In  the  morning,  if 
they  don't  come  to  us,  we  will  find  a  way  to 
go  to  them." 

He  smiled  optimistically,  and  sat  up  stur- 
dily, as  if  to  make  his  large  form  give  added 
impressiveness  to  his  prophecy. 

"You  have  a  little  'podsnappery'  at  times 
that  I  like,"  she  said  meditatively.  "It  is  al- 
ways for  a  good  purpose,  and  somehow  it  is 
pretty  sure  to  count.  Now  I  am  beginning 
to  see-j-only,  in  reality,  I  don't  see — that  what 
you  say  is  plausible.  Let  that  go,  then.  We 
go  back  to  the  island  in  the  morning." 

"That  is,  if  they  don't  come  for  us." 

"Yes.  But  I  see — that  is  what  you  really 
are  relying  on." 

233 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


"It  is  the  more  probable  of  the  two  pos- 
sibilities," he  admitted.  "But  I  thank  you 
for  whatever  compliment  may  be  in  the  pod- 
snappery  business." 

"You  are  very  welcome." 

He  took  off  his  cap,  and  hung  it  on  his 
knee.  The  sea  before  them  was  beautiful. 
The  back-slant  of  the  declining  sun  was  trem- 
bling far  east  and  flicking  star-points  in  some 
places  on  the  water,  but  cutting  out  clearly 
the  very  sea-rim  itself.  On  the  edge  of  that 
sharply-defined  precipice — that  end  of  all  the 
world — stood  out  the  white,  leaning  pillar  of 
a  sail.  Yet  more  to  the  south  a  dusky  gray 
was  blotting  out  the  clear  lines,  and  was  be- 
ginning to  mount  higher,  making  almost  an 
even  boundary  against  the  fading  blue. 

"I  am  going  to  ask  one  question,"  he  said 
musingly.  "If  you  don't  like  it  don't  an- 
swer. I  suppose  I  am  trespassing  upon  for- 
bidden ground,  but  this  is  not  exactly  an  ordi- 
nary occasion.  For  the  moment  we  seem  to 
be  the  only  two  in  the  world.  Well,  then, 
this  is  it:  Am  I  still  Jack  Beauchamp  to 

234 


Alter  Ego 

you?  I  want  to  get  rid  of  him,  you  know,  for 
now  that  his  wife  is  dead  he  'lags  superfluous 
on  the  stage.'  Will  you  forgive  the  whim  in 
asking  the  question?  It  isn't  entirely  inside 
the  taboo  line,  I  hope." 

She  sat  up  a  bit  straighter,  as  a  person 
might  do  that  was  growing  dreamy,  but  was 
suddenly  startled  by  some  practical  question. 
She  continued  to  look  out  to  sea,  as,  for  that 
matter,  he  was  still  doing,  and  the  answer 
was  not  instantly  forthcoming.  He  glanced 
at  her. 

"I  don't  see  why  your  question  should  be 
taboo,"  she  began  then.  "Why,  to  be  honest, 
you  don't  seem  just  like  Jack  Beauchamp, 
and  I  will  say — will  say  that  you  strike  me  as 
enlarging  from  him.  But  you  must  keep  in 
mind,"  she  qualified  hastily,  "that  it  is  not 
you  that  has  changed,  but  I.  Till  you  came 
here  I  knew  you  from  the  standpoint  of  Edith, 
and  she  had  capriciously  shut  you  inside  a 
shell.  Now  you  are  trying  to  break  out. 
Well,  I  don't  blame  you,  though  as  Jack 
Beauchamp,  you  were  excellent,  and  all  right. 

235 


The  Girl  With  T<wo  Selves 


Still,  it  is  natural  to  want  to  pass  for  what  you 
are  worth.    There,  have  n't  I  been  frank?" 

"You  have,"  he  said  emphatically,  "and  I 
am  obliged  to  you." 

The  golden  sparkles  on  the  water  turned 
to  silver,  and  the  seas  out  of  their  bounds  gath- 
ered blackness.  The  gray  in  the  south  was 
rolling  higher,  but  at  the  same  time  dragging 
along  the  water,  where  there  were  little  curl- 
ing wreaths,  almost  like  pale  smoke. 

"The  fog  is  coming  in,"  she  said,  "and  I 
suppose  we  had  better  go." 
"Yes,  I  suppose  we  had." 
A  light  that  bespoke  satisfaction  had  played 
over  his  face  for  an  instant  as  she  answered 
his  question,  but  this  she  had  not  seen.     He 
rose  now,  and  looked  for  the  easiest  way  down 
from  the  rock. 

He  found  Quesencourt  just  coming  around 
the  short  bend.     To  Hamil's  notion  the  Eng- 
lishman was  hardly  well  pleased,  and  he  was 
certainly  looking  in  sharp  question  that  way. 
"None    of    his    business,    either,"    Hamil 
snapped  to  himself ;  "he  has  no  claim  on  her." 
236 


Alter  Ego 

He  turned  back  to  her  very  deliberately, 
and  smilingly  said: 

"The  shortest  way  home  seems  to  be  the 
steepest  and  rockiest.  If  you  will  give  me 
your  hand  we  can  get  down  at  this  little 
notch." 

"Oh,  there  is  Mr.  Quesencourt,"  she  said. 
"Hello  1"  she  hailed  him,  "we'll  be  there  in 
a  minute." 

He  waved  his  hand,  and  let  that  stand  for 
an  answer. 

Hamil  got  down  a  step,  and  turned  to  help 
her.  To  his  amazement  she  shrank  back. 
The  natural  look  had  gone  out  of  her  face;  it 
was  pale,  and  her  eyes  were  staringly  open. 

"Carmen!  what  is  it?" 

He  sprang  to  her,  and  tried  to  take  her 
hands. 

"No!  no!  I — I  don't  want  you.  Something 
is  wrong — my  head!" 

She  went  another  step  back,  and  collapsed, 
dropping  to  her  knees.  By  this  time  Quesen- 
court had  seen  that  something  was  wrong,  and 
now  came  at  a  headlong  scramble  up  the  rock. 

237 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


"What's  the  matter?  What  ails  her? 
Carmen,  tell  me — " 

"No!  no!  not  you  either!  Keep  back. 
Give  me  time  to — to — " 

But  she  ended  by  sinking  forward,  with  her 
arms  outstretched. 

They  both  flew  to  her,  but  Hamil  reached 
her  first.  He  stooped  to  pick  her  up,  but 
Quesencourt,  half-wild,  as  it  seemed,  caught 
his  arm. 

"Give  her  to  me,"  he  fiercely  demanded. 
"She  is  the  same  as  betrothed  to  me.  I  won't 
stand  it  to  have  you  interfere.  You  presume 
altogether  too  much." 

Hamil  wrenched  his  arm  free,  at  the  same 
time  gathering  her  fully  up. 

"Stand  back,  Quesencourt!  She  is  not  yet 
betrothed  to  you,  as  I  happen  to  know.  And 
I  loved  her  as  Edith,  and  don't  know  but  I 
am  beginning  to  love  her  as  Carmen.  I  am 
not  in  a  humor  to  be  fooled  with,  so  hands  off. 
I  am  going  to  carry  her  back  to  the  camp  and 
without  any  help." 

But  Quesencourt  came  of  a  long  line  of 

238, 


Alter  Ego 

dogged,  hard-fighting  men,  and  he  merely  set 
his  jaws,  and  gripped  Hamil's  arm. 

"I  realize  the  emergency  as  much  as  you, 
but — "  He  got  no  further. 

The  girl  herself  struggling  in  Hamil's  arms 
now  raised  her  head. 

"Jack,  is  this  you?  What  is  the  matter? 
Where  are  you  carrying  me?  This  gentle- 
man will  think  it  queer  to  see  you  toting  your 
wife  about  in  such  a  way.  I  can  walk  all 
right." 

It  was  lucky  that  she  had  got  back  her 
strength,  for  the  giant  almost  lost  his.  He 
let  her  slide  to  her  feet. 

"Why,  Jack,  dear,  you  seem  to  be  so  weak! 
What  is  it?  Tell  Edith.— For  Heaven's  sake 
what  is  happening  to  us  alll" 


239 


CHAPTER  XVII 

WAGER  OF  BATTLE 

BUT  the  surprise  and  the  wild,  almost 
fierce  delight  that  swept  like  a  hurri- 
cane over  the  man,  kept  him  for  an  in- 
stant speechless.    Then,  desperately  pulling 
himself  together,  while  his  strength  likewise 
came  back,  he  steadily  and  soothingly  said: 
"It  was  nothing.     I  am  all  right.     Every- 
thing   is    all    right.    This    gentleman    is    a 
friend." 

The  puzzled  girl  looked  a  little  curiously 
at  Quesencourt. 

"Excuse  me  sir,  but  have  n't  I  seen  you  be- 
fore? Yes,  I  have.  Why  it  is  Mr.  Quesen- 
court, my  father's  friend.  I  am  glad  to  see 
you. — There,  Jack,  dear,  I  do  remember  him 
after  all.  I  told  you  once  I  did  n't.  But  my 
head  is  better  than  it  used  to  be. — Say,  Jack, 
why  are  we  all  here?  What  is  going  on? 

240 


Wager  of  Battle 


It  seems  as  if  I  have  been  in  a  long  dream. 
Has  my  old  trouble  been  bothering  me?" 

With  a  sharp  breath,  Quesencourt  walked 
up  to  her. 

"Miss  McAllister,  for  God's  sake  make  an 
effort,  and  try  to  shake  this  off.  You  are  not 
Edith.  There  is  no  Edith.  This  man  is  not 
Jack  Beauchamp,  but  John  Dana.  He  is 
nothing  to  you.  I  have  your  promise  to  con- 
sider a  marriage  with  me.  Don't  you  re- 
member? Can't  you  make  it  all  come  back 
to  you?" 

But  she  shrank  away  from  him,  her  brows 
puckered  in  wonder  and  troubled  confusion. 

She  looked  up  in  Hamil's  face. 

"Jack,  he  must  be  crazy!  What  does  he 
mean?  Don't  let  him  talk  so.  Send  him 
away." 

"Mr.  Quesencourt,"  said  Hamil  in  a  low, 
quiet  tone,  but  one  that  any  prudent  man 
would  have  given  the  most  serious  attention 
to,  "you  see  how  the  matter  stands.  Be  kind 
enough  to  go.  Edith  and  I  will  follow  at 


once." 


16  241, 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


"That 's  right,  Jack.  I  knew  you  would  n't 
stand  such  talk,  even  if  he  is  a  little  queer." 

She  came  close,  tucking  her  hand  under 
his  arm. 

He  looked  down  at  her.  A  sort  of  reck- 
lessness came  over  him,  and  he  let  his  face 
show  what  he  felt. 

Quesencourt  saw  it.  He  looked  from  one 
to  the  other,  and  went  pale  under  his  tan.  He 
made  a  fierce,  dabbing  gesture. 

"I  won't  stand  it.  You  shall  never  take 
such  an  advantage!  You  are  no  part  of  a 
man,  or  you  would  not.  She  does  n't  care  a 
spark  for  you,  and  when  she  is  herself,  she 
does  care  for  me.  I  will  relieve  you  of  all 
responsibility  as  her  attendant.  I  will  ex- 
plain to  her  father.  Now  let  her  alone,  or 
you  will  have  something  to  regret." 

Hamil's  face,  already  grave,  grew  porten- 
tously dark. 

"Quesencourt,  I  think  I  know  my  duty  and 
my  rights,  and  I  shall  uphold  both.  I  have 
already  promised  what  is  reasonable,  and  I 
shall  concede  nothing  more.  Now  be  care- 

242 


Wager  of  Battle 


ful  what  you  do  for  if  you  insist  on  trouble 
you  will  make  a  serious  mistake." 

Quesencourt  unbuttoned  his  wristbands, 
and  turned  back  his  cuffs.  Both  he  and 
Hamil  were  in  outing  shirts,  and  wore  their 
trousers  belted. 

"This  is  n't  a  tugging  match  with  oars,  as 
I  am  going  to  show  you.  Put  the  lady  one 
side,  for  one  of  us  is  going  to  make  good  in 
this  business  1" 

Hamil  simply  led  the  wondering  and  now 
worried  girl  a  little  one  side.  "Stay  here  a 
moment,  dear.  This  Mr.  Quesencourt  has 
the  freak — as  you  say,  he  is  a  little  queer — of 
wanting  to  fight.  At  such  times  it  does  him 
good  to  accommodate  him.  It  won't  take 
long.  Don't  be  afraid." 

He  did  not  bother  with  his  cuffs,  but 
walked  quietly  out  in  the  open  space.  Here 
the  rock  was  almost  flat. 

"A  little  harder  under  foot  than  a  ring  can- 
vas," he  said  carelessly,  "but  no  matter.  I 
don't  consider  myself  responsible  for  acci- 
dents." 

243 


The  Girl  With   Two  Selves 


Quesencourt,  his  face  serious  enough — for 
doubtless  he  had  some  idea  of  what  he  had 
undertaken — yet  with  steady,  fighting  eyes, 
walked  quickly  up. 

Not  a  word  was  said,  but  instantly  they  were 
at  work.  Quesencourt,  who  had  evidently 
had  a  careful  training  as  a  boxer,  feinted 
swiftly  with  his  left  hand,  and  put  in  a  short, 
jolty  right  blow.  Hamil  had  not  been  caught 
unawares,  but  coolly  blocked  it.  Then  he 
rushed. 

It  was  impossible,  at  least  for  poor,  dazed 
Edith,  to  tell  just  what  happened  next.  She 
saw  Hamil's  head  go  a  little  back,  as  if  he  had 
run  into  Quesencourt's  fist,  but  almost  on  the 
instant  one  of  his  shoulders  went  forward,  and 
Quesencourt,  who  was  now  almost  blanketed 
by  Hamil's  larger  body,  went  two  or  three 
steps  back.  He  seemed  to  have  parried  a 
tremendous  blow,  but  to  have  done  so  by  the 
mere  skin  of  his  teeth.  He  was  all  but  top- 
pled from  his  balance,  and  was  still  not  quite 
firm  on  his  feet.  Then  Hamil  rushed  again. 
This  time  he  let  go  left  and  right. 

244 


Wager  of  Battle 


Edith  could  see  now  what  happened.  She 
saw  Quesencourt's  head  jerk  back,  as  if  it  had 
been  yanked  with  a  rope,  and  on  the  instant 
he  staggered,  his  shoulders  sagged,  and  he 
was  down  in  a  heap.  Hamil  jumped  for- 
ward, but  it  was  to  try  to  break  his  fall.  He 
was  too  late,  but  luckily  the  tumble  had 
swung  the  lurching  head  over  upon  one  of 
the  extended  arms,  so  that  it  did  not  land  on 
the  rock. 

Hamil  was  instantly  on  his  knees  beside 
him.  He  had  seen  how  he  brought  up,  but 
wanted  to  make  sure  of  other  things.  He  felt 
him  over,  and  looked  at  the  place  where  the 
knockout  blow  had  landed.  It  was  at  the 
top  of  the  forehead. 

Meanwhile  Edith  had  come  anxiously  up. 

"How  is  he?  Do  they  have  to  hit  him  like 
that  every  time  he  has  a  crazy  spell?  I 
should  think  it  was  pretty  harsh  medicine. 
But  of  course  you  did  n't  have  anybody  to 
help  you,  so  you  had  to  be  rough." 

"That's  it,"  he  assented.  "I  had  to  be 
rough.  Oh,  he  does  n't  have  these  spells  very 

245 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


often.  He 's  only  stunned  now.  He  '11 
come  to  in  a  few  minutes.  Perhaps,  though', 
you  had  better  go  down  to  the  shore — be  care- 
ful and  not  fall  in — and  get  a  little  water. 
Take  his  cap.  It  is  covered  with  oilskin,  and 
will  make  a  better  vessel  than  mine." 

But  he  saw  that  she  could  not  make  the 
journey  very  quickly,  unless  she  went  danger- 
ously fast,  and  he  took  the  cap  from  her. 
"Look  after  him,  and  I  '11  go." 

"All  right.  I  '11  take  his  head  in  my  lap, 
and  keep  it  off  the  rock." 

"H — m.  Well,  as  to  that — yes,  I  suppose 
it  would  be  humane." 

"Why,  Jack,  you  look  a  little  queer.  You 
don't  feel  sensitive  about  it,  do  you?  The 
poor  man  won't  know  it,  and  besides,  as  you 
say,  it  would  be  humane.  It  seems  to  me  that 
you  never  used  to  mind  such  things,  and  as 
this  poor  man  is  crazy  besides — " 

"Oh,  certainly,  certainly,  scoop  his  head 
up.  I  don't  care.  I  '11  be  back  with  the 
water  in  a  jiffy." 

246 


Wager  of  Battle 


He  was.  And  it  was  not  long  before 
Quesencourt  opened  his  eyes. 

As  is  usual  in  such  cases,  he  did  not  know 
at  first  what  had  happened,  and  showed  that 
the  clock  of  his  mind  had  stopped  at  the  last 
thing  before  the  knockout. 

He  blinked  up  at  the  two,  but  when  he  saw 
who  was  holding  his  head  he  smiled. 

"I  must  have  got  a  tumble.  Was  that  it? 
I  dare  say  I  hit  my  heel  on  a  rock.  In  just 
a  minute,  Dana,  I  will  be  with  you,  and  we 
will  resume.  I  am  not  the  kind  that  goes  out 
in  a  round." 

"But  you  are  out  in  one  this  time,"  Hamil 
said  unsparingly.  "I  put  one  over  that  took 
you  into  dreamland.  No,  you  did  n't  stum- 
ble, and  your  head  did  n't  bring  up  on  a  rock. 
And  you  are  in  no  shape  to  fight  any  longer, 
as  I  think  you  will  see  when  you  stand  up." 

"How  persistent  he  is  I"  interjected  Edith 
wonderingly.  "But  I  have  been  told  that 
some — I  must  n't  hurt  his  feelings — that  peo- 
ple in  certain  states  of  mind  are  so.  Only  I 

247 


The  Girl  With   Two  Selves 


did  n't  know  that  Mr.  Quesencourt  ever  had 
such  a  trouble." 

"  'Trouble!'  "  Quesencourt  echoed  wonder- 
ingly.  "Pray  Miss  McAllister,  what  do  you 
mean?  There,  now,  I  am  able  to  sit  up,  and 
thank  you  for  your  kindness.  Dana,  I  will 
give  you  credit  for  that  punch,  since  you  say 
you  delivered  it.  But  I  should  like  another 
chance,  for  I  am  sure  I  could  do  better.  Wait 
a  bit,  till  I  satisfy  you  that  I  am  good  for  a 
few  more  rounds." 

"You  die  hard,"  commented  Hamil  with  a 
certain  grim  humor.  Nevertheless,  as  down- 
right physical  courage  always  commands  re- 
spect, he  recovered  himself  at  once,  and  with 
a  pleasant  nod  replied: 

"All  right.  Get  up,  then,  and  see  how  you 
do  feel." 

The  plucky  fellow  dizzily  lurched,  as  he 
tried,  but  finally  did  manage  to  get  on  his  legs. 
But  his  look,  after  he  had  stood  there  a  mo- 
ment, told  the  whole  story.  He  was  weak, 
and  all  the  spring  was  out  of  him.  Besides, 
it  was  evident  that  his  head  was  still  unsteady. 

248 


Wager  of  Battle 


"Jove!  I  take  it  I  am  out  of  the  running 
this  time,"  he  shook  his  head,  and  reluctantly 
acknowledged.  "You  are  a  heavy  hitter, 
Dana,  and  you  have  such  weight  behind  you 
that  it  is  hard  to  stall  you  off.  Still,  on  a  bet- 
ter and  smoother  ground,  I  think  that  I  might 
give  you  an  argument.  At  least  I  believe  I 
could  for  a  few  rounds.  Ah,  and  now  I  see 
that  I  have  given  you  a  mouse.  It  is  over 
your  right  eye.  That's  where  I  got  in  my 
left." 

"You  got  it  in,"  said  Hamil  deliberately, 
but  at  last  showing  a  little  irritation,  "because 
I  was  willing  to  take  it  for  the  sake  of  closing 
the  business  quickly.  I  could  have  kept  at 
our  fighting  and  beaten  you  to  pieces.  And 
listen :  I  did  n't  put  all  my  strength  into  that 
final  clip.  I  let  out  just  hard  enough  to  bowl 
you  over.  I  had  the  thought  that  you  might 
smash  your  head  on  the  rock.  I  am  willing 
to  give  you  credit  for  boxing  well,  but  you 
have  n't  the  beef  and  bones  for  me.  Besides, 
I  know  something  about  the  game  myself." 

"Gad,  and  that's  so!"  Quesencourt  admit- 
249 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


ted  with  emphasis.  "Say,  you  would  stand  a 
downright  good  chance  to  win  the  champion- 
ship of  the  world.  Too  bad  the  ring  can't 
fetch  you!  As  a  sporting  man  I — um!  my 
left  arm  is  half  broken.  It  must  have  been 
in  stopping  that  first  clip.  I  realized  at  the 
time  that  it  was  like  a  mule-kick.  Well,  and 
if  it  is  all  over,  then,  suppose  we  go  back  to 
the  camp?  There  are  some  important  things 
that  remain  to  be  settled.  The  moral  issue  is 
still  left.  You  know  what  I  mean.  You  are 
in  honor  bound  to — play  that  her  father  was 
here.  Do  nothing  that  would — " 

"That  will  do,"  sharply  broke  in  Hamil. 
"I  don't  purpose  to  be  dictated  to.  And  I 
wish  you  to  know  that  I  have  done  nothing, 
and  shall  do  nothing  different  from  what  her 
father  has  seen  done,  and  has  not  objected  to, 
has,  in  fact,  commended." 

Quesencourt  flamed  up  with  anger,  both  at 
Hamil's  manner,  and  at  the  speech  itself. 

"Pretty  high  talk  for  an  adventurer  nurse," 
he  rasped.  "Do  you  mean  to  tell  me  that  her 
father  permitted  endearments,  and  things  of 

250 


Wager  of  Battle 


that  sort?  It 's  too  fishy,  and  I  '11  believe  it 
when  he  says  so." 

"Jack,"  put  in  Edith  softly,  "don't  mind 
him.  What  is  the  use  in  arguing  with  crazy 
people?  There,  I  said  it  after  all,  didn't  I? 
And  I  was  n't  going  to,  on  account  of  hurting 
his  feelings." 

Hamil  saw  the  humor  of  the  thing,  and 
laughingly  nodded. 

"All  right.  We  will  suspend  for  the  pres- 
ent." 

Even  Quesencourt  rather  dismally  grinned. 

"It  is  a  comedy  of  errors  that  can't  last 
long,"  he  mumbled. 

"Where  is  camp,  and  what  do  you  mean  by 
it?"  asked  Edith. 

"Oh,  just  over  here,"  Hamil  evasively  an- 
swered. "I  may  as  well  tell  you,"  he  went  on 
after  a  moment's  hesitation,  "that  you  have 
had  a  little  trouble  with  your  head,  but  you 
are  all  right  now." 

"Ah,  that's  what  I  thought."  Her  face 
gloomed  over.  "I  was  in  hope  I  should  n't 
have  any  more  such  spells.  But  this  time, 

251 


The  Girl  With   Two  Selves 


Jack,  things  seem  to  have  taken  a  new  turn. 
I  can  bring  back  certain — were  they  dreams? 
Is  it  true,  Jack,  that  after  all  you  are  musical 
— that  you  can  sing  and  play?" 

He  started. 

"Why,  eh— yes,  I  can.  WHaf  else?"  He 
asked  anxiously. 

Quesencourt  was  surprised  also,  and  was 
now  listening  as  intently  as  Hamil  himself. 

"Let  me  see,"  she  thoughtfully  went  on. 
"Well,  for  one  thing,  you  notice  that  I  re- 
membered Mr.  Quesencourt.  Only  I  did  n't 
recall  that — recall  his  trouble.  But  he  seems 
to  be  all  right  now,"  she  subjoined  wonder- 
ingly,  glancing  at  the  Englishman's  interested 
expression. 

"Yes,  he  's  quite  right  now,"  said  Hamil 
hastily,  "but  what  else?  By  the  way,  I  did 
note  at  the  time  that  it  was  odd  you  should 
have  recalled  his  looks.  On  a  former  occa- 
sion his  name  came  up,  and  you  did  n't  re- 
member it.  Well,  and  what  else?" 

"Oh,  I  don't  know.  It  is  rather  hard  for 
me  to  think.  Ah,  is  n't  it  true  that  you  and  I 

252 


Wager  of  Battle 


were  a  little  formal  to  each  other?  It  was 
back  there  on  Le  Bijou.  Why  was  it,  Jack? 
I  am  almost  sorry  I  dug  it  out  of  my  brain, 
though  no  doubt  you  can  explain  it.  Was  it 
for  the  same  reason  that  some  of  the  old  things 
were?  Was  my  mental  condition  a  little  bad, 
so  it  was  best  that  I  should  keep  quiet,  and  a 
part  of  the  time  by  myself?" 

"Yes,  yes ;  that  was  it." 

He  was  relieved  to  have  the  explanation  put 
ready-made  into  his  hands. 

"And  Mr.  Baum,  father's  friend,  was 
there,"  she  next  said.  "Stop.  How  could  I 
know  that?  I  think  I  never  saw  him,  though 
I  have  often  heard  father  speak  of  him.  Yet 
he  was  there — he  was  certainly  there.  Oh, 
and  he  sang  and  played  on  the  harp!  Why, 
I  recall  a  sort  of  pun  he  made!  He  spoke  of 
his  harp  as  a  'jew's-harp.'  Isn't  that  so?" 

Hamil  scarcely  knew  what  to  think.  He 
had  never  seen  her  like  this  before.  For  the 
first  time  she  seemed  to  be  getting  things 
clearly  out  of  an  immediate  past.  Here 
seemed  to  be  the  beginning  of  an  actual  com- 

253 


The  Girl  With  T<wo  Selves 


mingling,  a  blending  into  one,  of  the  two  per- 
sonalities so  widely  different.  How  much 
farther  would  she  go?  It  was  a  bewildering, 
an  almost  uncanny,  thought  that  she  might 
bring  herself  back — at  any  rate,  so  that  she 
might  behold  herself  as  Carmen.  Then  what 
would  happen?  Would  she  arrive  at  any 
firmer  ground?  -  Or  would  she  become  the 
victim  of  a  terrible  conflict,  from  which  per- 
haps there  might  come  a  complete  mental 
overthrow. 

He  shuddered.  It  was  no  easy  matter  to 
keep  the  apprehension  provoked  by  such  re- 
flections out  of  his  face;  nevertheless,  by  a 
mighty  effort  he  schooled  his  features  to  lend 
her  only  that  degree  of  gravity  the  occasion 
warranted. 

After  the  pause,  he  answered  her:  "Yes, 
Mr.  Baum  did  sing,  and  he  played  the  harp. 
Also  he  sprang  the  pun." 

"I  am  glad  to  be  so  clear  in  all  that,"  she 
said,  her  lovely  face  aglow  with  delight. 
"And  what  else?  Let  me  think." 

In  her  child  fashion  she  turned  her  back 
254 


Wager  of  Battle 


on  him,  and  put  her  hand  to  her  cheek.  All 
at  once  she  cried  out. 

"Oh,  no!  no!"  She  whirled  around,  and 
ran  to  him. 

"Jack,  I  had  a  dreadful  thought.  I  don't 
want  it!  Don't  let  me  have  it.  Talk  about 
something.  Try  to  drive  it  away!" 

She  clapped  her  head  on  his  arm,  and  took 
his  hand  and  put  it  on  her  head.  "Squeeze 
my  head  a  little.  No,  push  down  on  it — 
that 's  it.  Hold  it  with  both  your  hands  for 
a  minute." 

He  silently  did  so.  He  was  almost  cold 
with  anxiety.  This  might  be  the  terrible 
crisis  that  he  had  pictured.  He  could  not 
forgive  himself  now  that  he  had  pushed  the 
questioning. 

Quesencourt,  for  the  moment  disarmed  of 
his  jealousy,  looked  on  gravely  and  anxiously. 

It  was  a  full  minute  before  she  spoke  again. 
Then  she  said,  stopping  and  picking  some  of 
her  words : 

"I  feel  better,  though  still  there  is  some — 
some  confusion.  But  that  dreadful  feeling 

255 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


must  n't  come  back.  It  might  drive  me 
crazy.  It  was  as  if  two — two  somethings — 
were  fighting  together  in  my  brain.  I  don't 
mean  in  a  physical  sense.  I  can't  explain  it. 
I  think,  Jack,  that  something  will  by  and  by 
come  of  it.  I  feel  so — I  don't  want  to  bother 
with  anything  more  now.  Take  me  to  your 
camp,  Jack." 

"Yes,  dear.  That's  just  what  I  will  do. 
Mr.  Quesencourt,  who  is  for  the  present  all 
over  his  trouble,  will  go  along,  too.  By  the 
way,  Mr.  Quesencourt,  it  was  a  little  strange 
that  you  should  fall,  and  bump  your  head, 
and  that  I  should  bump  mine  in  trying  to  save 
you." 

"Remarkably  strange."  He  saw  the  point, 
and  grinned  feebly. 

"Now  that  is  like  you  I"  Edith  broke  out 
admiringly,  all  at  once  seeming  to  forget  her 
own  troubles.  "Yes,  for  of  course  you  are  go- 
ing to  tell  that  fib  to  save  Mr.  Quesencourt's 
pride.  You  are  all  right  now,  are  n't  you, 
Mr.  Quesencourt,  so  you  don't  mind  the  allu- 
sion?" 

256 


Wager  of  Battle 


"Oh,  yes,  I  am  quite  all  right."  But  in 
spite  of  the  circumstances  he  spoke  a  grain 
testily. 

"I  fear  I  am  not  quite  so  generous  as  you 
think,"  Hamil  had  the  tact  to  answer.  "No, 
we  are  going  to  tell  the  fib  mainly  to  avoid 
general  talk,  and  surmises — Come,  then,  if 
you  are  ready." 

He  led  her  down  from  the  rock,  and  Ques- 
encourt,  still  somewhat  shaken,  and  uncertain 
in  the  joints,  more  slowly  followed. 

Edith  kept  Hamil's  arm  after  they  were 
down,  and  on  the  way  back  she  got  hold  of  his 
hand.  Quesencourt  knit  his  brows  as  he 
noted  the  act,  but  the  situation  hardly  allowed 
of  interference,  so  he  said  nothing.  It  was 
true,  though,  that  the  change  in  the  girl — her 
child  ways,  and  almost  pitiful  dependence  on 
Hamil — true  that  this  new  and  previously  un- 
believable situation  went  some  way  in  toning 
down  the  first  hot  anger  and  indignation  he 
had  felt. 

As  the  distance  was  so  short  they  took  but 

a  trifle  of  time  to  cover  it;  however,  Hamil 
17 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


hung  back  at  the  last  moment,  pretending  to 
have  found  a  new  woods  flower.  As  Quesen- 
court  came  abreast  of  them  Hamil  touched 
his  arm.  A  look  explained.  It  meant  that 
he  should  slip  ahead,  and  get  in  a  hint  that 
should  prepare  Baum  and  Miss  Winrose  for 
the  metamorphosis  in  Carmen. 

Quesencourt  nodded  understandingly,  and 
before  Hamil  was  through  with  the  flower  he 
was  clear  of  the  trees  and  bushes,  and  was 
making  some  energetic  signs  to  Baum.  Miss 
Winrose  was  still  in  the  bower. 

But  as  the  Jew  was  getting  the  sense  of  the 
signs,  Miss  Winrose  appeared.  From  the  di- 
rection that  she  came  she  was  facing  the  sea, 
and  on  the  instant  gave  a  little  cry. 

"Oh,  the  launch!    See?" 

A  good-sized  launch  at  full  speed  was  seen 
passing  them.  Just  then  those  on  board  ap- 
peared to  see  the  flag  and  the  smoke,  and  there 
was  a  little  flurry.  Quickly  her  speed  slack- 
ened, and  in  a  moment  she  was  coming  about. 

Hamil  saw  that  he  must  be  quick  if  he 
would  save  confusion  and  awkwardness  on 

258 


Wager  of  Battle 


Edith's  account,  and  he  stepped  along  to  Miss 
Winrose,  and  said  low  but  energetically : 

"Carmen  has  changed  back  to  Edith. 
Don't  appear  to  notice  it.  She  may  treat  you 
as  a  stranger,  and  she  may  not." 

He  saw  by  a  look  from  Baum  that  the  Jew 
was  already  posted,  and  with  that  he  dropped 
back  to  Edith's  side  again. 


259 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

A  NEW  PHASE 

THE  launch  was  now  fast  coming  close. 
Quesencourt  climbed  down  the  bank 
to    a    projecting    ledge    and    there 
awaited  her  hail.     A  big  old  man  in  a  little 
unbecoming  cap  and  a  gray  suit,  including 
knickerbockers,  stood  up  forward;  he  placed 
his  hands  trumpet  fashion  and  shouted: 
"Hello,  there!" 

"Hello!"  Quesencourt  responded. 
"In  trouble?" 

"Yes.  We  lost  the  mast  of  our  sloop-yacht, 
and  barely  fetched  in  here.  We  have  noth- 
ing to  make  proper  repairs  with,  and  don't 
see  how  we  are  going  to  get  away." 

"You  see  us,  don't  you?  and  we  see  that 
there  are  ladies  in  your  party.  That 's 
enough.  Is  it  deep  water  close  in  to  that 
ledge?" 

260 


A  New  Phase 


"Yes ;  more  than  your  vessel  will  draw." 
"All  right.  We  '11  fetch  in  there." 
"That  seems  to  be  all,"  Quesencourt  called 
up  to  the  others.  "Do  you  mind  handing  the 
luggage  down  to  me,  Mr.  Baum?  I  fell  on 
a  ledge  a  few  minutes  ago,  and  got  rather  a 
bad  shaking  up,  and  I  think  I  will  save  my- 
self what  climbing  I  can.  Mr.  Dana,  you 
got  a  little  thump,  too,  but  if  your  head  is  all 
right  will  you  help  the  ladies  start?  I  will 
meet  them  half  way?" 

He  got  all  the  help  he  wanted,  and  perhaps 
a  little  more,  for  Hamil,  when  it  came  to 
Edith,  did  not  hand  her  down,  but  went  along 
with  her  to  the  bottom.  By  the  time  they 
were  all  assembled  below  the  power-boat 
slipped  cautiously  up. 

There  was  no  trouble  in  boarding  her,  and 
when  they  were  all  safely  bestowed  she  backed 
away,  and  the  big  man  then  asked  Quesen- 
court whither  they  wished  to  be  taken. 

"We  came  from  Le  Bijou,  an  island  in 
there  coastwards,"  Quesencourt  answered; 
"but  perhaps  it  will  take  you  too  far  off  your 

261 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


course  to  land  us  there.  If  that 's  the  case, 
why  just  land  us  at  the  nearest  inhabited 
place." 

"We  were  merely  cruising  for  pleasure," 
the  big  man  said,  "and  we  can  go  there  as  well 
as  anywhere.  We  have  a  very  fast  boat,  and 
she  won't  make  much  of  a  few  miles  more  or 
less." 

"That 's  very  good  of  you,  and  we  are  much 
obliged,"  Quesencourt  said. 

Hamil  and  the  others  also  thanked  him, 
and  after  that  there  were  some  introductions. 
It  proved  that  the  big  man  was  president  of 
a  Western  college,  and  he  had  with  him  his 
young  wife  and  her  boy  brother.  His  com- 
pany was  made  up  of  a  skipper  and  engineer, 
but  it  seemed  that  he  also  knew  something 
about  power  craft.  He  was  a  trifle  brusque 
at  the  first  go-off,  but  not  afterwards,  and  his 
wife  was  a  beaming,  amiable  little  creature, 
so  that  the  castaways  found  that  they  had 
fallen  into  very  good  hands.  It  did  not  take 
his  wife  long  to  get  fairly  well  acquainted 
with  Carmen  and  Miss  Winrose,  and  in  fact, 

262 


A  New  Phase 


before  the  boat  was  half  way  to  the  island  they 
were  all  agreeably  inside  the  outworks  of  re- 
serve. They  exchanged  small  confidences 
that  it  would  have  taken  men  a  month  to 
reach,  and  reached  instant  agreement  on 
twenty  subjects. 

But  it  all  helped  the  situation  in  certain 
ways.  The  women  made  such  a  merry  little 
stir  that  Hamil,  Quesencourt  and  Baum  did 
not  have  to  say  very  much.  This  suited  all 
three,  for  Hamil,  with  Edith  close  by,  was 
cozily  happy,  and  did  not  need  words,  Ques- 
encourt was  sore  both  in  mind  and  body,  and 
so  preferred  to  gloom,  and  Baum  was  both 
tired  and  sleepy.  But  more  than  all,  there 
was  a  timely  escape  from  what  would  have 
been  a  situation  of  strain  and  awkwardness. 
At  best,  the  almost  terrifying  jugglery  of  the 
recent  transformation  would  have  been  hard 
to  meet  and  accept,  and  at  the  same  time  to 
appear  to  ignore.  Now  there  would  be  time 
for  mental  adjustment,  and  there  would  not  of 
necessity  be  any  shock  to  the  girl  herself. 
Her  father  and  Bess,  however  great  they 

263 


The  Girl  With   Two  Selves 


would  find  the  disappointment,  would  be  pre- 
pared. To  them  it  would  be  neither  new  nor 
strange. 

But  of  course  it  would  be  too  much  to  ex- 
pect that  what  had  happened  would  be  en- 
tirely ignored  and  forgotten  even  in  the  little 
time  that  they  should  be  on  the  boat.  Hamil 
was  not  seriously  disturbed,  therefore  when, 
in  the  growing  dusk,  he  once  or  twice  made 
out  the  gleam  of  Quesencourt's  eyes,  and  saw 
that  he  was  trying  to  read  Edith's  face; 
neither  did  he  mind  that  Miss  Winrose  sev- 
eral times  feigned  to  be  deeply  interested  in 
something  that  Edith  was  saying  as  an  excuse 
for  a  straight  and  really  searching  look. 
They  might  as  well  get  the  key  of  the  piece 
one  time  as  another,  for  certainly  they  must 
soon  join  in  the  tune. 

Thinking  of  this  finally  made  Hamil  smile. 
He  was  returning  to  power,  and  could  afford 
to  be  generous.  He  would  even  hold  in  a 
little  before  Quesencourt,  and  unless  Edith 
herself  made  one  of  her  innocent  advances 
he  would  content  himself  with  quiet  looks  and 

264 


A  New  Phase 


touches.  In  speaking  to  her  he  could  not  be 
quite  so  obliging,  for  she  would  expect  affec- 
tionate words,  and  he  would  stir  up  a  thou- 
sand Quesencourts  before  he  would  as  much 
as  bring  one  look  of  question  into  her  eyes. 

He  glanced  at  her  now.  She  sat  beside 
him,  but  with  her  face  towards  the  professor's 
wife  and  Miss  Winrose,  and  he  could  lei- 
surely take  in  the  perfect  curve  of  her  cheek, 
the  round  pink  of  her  neck,  and  the  billows 
of  her  splendid  hair.  Even  as  he  was  stirred 
by  the  old  tenderness  that  was  not  quite  pas- 
sion because  so  much  pity  and  high  responsi- 
bility went  with  it,  yet  was  compelling,  and 
fair  for  a  man  to  have — even  as  this  moved 
him,  she  carelessly  put  out  her  hand,  and 
while  still  listening  to  Miss  Winrose,  patted 
his  knee.  It  was  the  first  time  that  she  had 
done  anything  like  this  since  they  had  come 
aboard,  and  if  these  new  people  noticed  it 
doubtless  they  would  be  surprised,  though 
of  course  that  would  not  matter.  They  would 
suppose  him  to  be  her  lover. 

This  rather  pleased  him,  also,  and  he 
265 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


glanced  at  them,  but  neither  seemed  to  be  no- 
ticing. Edith  dropped  her  hand,  then,  and 
used  it  to  emphasize  a  remark,  but  the  touch 
seemed  to  linger. 

"God  bless  you!"  he  could  not  help  saying 
under  his  breath. 

The  professor  had  not  exaggerated  the 
speed  of  his  boat,  and  almost  before  Hamil, 
in  his  serenity  and  satisfaction,  wished,  Le 
Bijou  was  close  aboard.  As  they  rounded  the 
outlying  point  they  saw  lights  on  the  floating 
wharf,  and  the  shapes  of  people  passing  to 
and  fro  between. 

"There!  Father  and  Bessie  are  coming  to 
hunt  for  us!"  Edith  cried.  "I  knew  they 
would  worry.  Hail  them  as  soon  as  possible, 
somebody." 

But  the  launch  had  already  been  seen.  A 
figure  that  they  made  out  as  the  Major's  came 
to  the  edge  of  the  wharf. 

"Hello!    What  boat  is  that?" 

"We  Ve  here,  papa,  and  everything  is  all 
right,"  Edith  made  direct  business  of  it,  and 
answered. 

266 


A  New  Phase 


"Good!  You  were  late,  and  we  had  begun 
to  worry  a  little." 

They  bore  up  to  the  wharf,  and  made  quick 
work  of  disembarking.  A  little  tumult  of 
talk  and  explanations  followed,  broken  by 
bringing  forward  the  professor  and  his  wife. 
It  took  ten  minutes  before  the  rescuers  were 
sufficiently  thanked  and  reluctantly  permitted 
to  go.  It  was  on  promise  to  renew  the  ac- 
quaintance. All  this  while,  as  Hamil  noticed, 
Edith  was  so  far  Carmen  that  neither  the 
Major  nor  Bess  discovered  anything. 

Now  they  bunched  together,  and  started 
up  the  path,  the  Major,  with  a  lantern,  in  the 
fore.  For  a  short  distance  they  did  not  have 
to  keep  any  particular  order,  but  then  the 
path  narrowed,  and  only  two  could  go  abreast. 
Miss  Winrose  was  near  Bess,  and  came  up 
with  her,  thus  making  up  one  pair.  Edith 
was  close  behind  them,  and  for  the  moment 
alone,  and  Hamil  and  Quesencourt  brought 
up  the  rear.  Both  men  had  fallen  silent,  and 
were  looking  at  the  girl.  Neither  tried  to 
overtake  her,  for  Quesencourt  of  course  knew 

267 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


that  she  would  probably  think  it  a  liberty, 
and  Hamil  shrank  from  bringing  on  the  final 
disclosure.  He  knew  that  she  would  prob- 
ably address  him  in  a  way  that  would  attract 
the  notice  of  Bess. 

But  Edith  all  at  once  settled  the  matter  her- 
self. She  turned  her  head. 

"Where  are  you,  Jack?  What  is  that 
strong  arm  for  if  not  to  help  your  wife  along? 
You  can  talk  with  Mr.  Quesencourt  some 
other  time." 

Bess  had  said  something  to  Miss  Winrose, 
and  at  the  moment  was  waiting  for  the  an- 
swer. She  could  not  well  help  hearing  the 
terribly  enlightening  words.  She  stopped 
short. 

Hamil  pushed  on,  and  took  Edith's  arm. 

"All  right.  I  was  not  intending  to  leave 
you  to  your  own  devices  very  long." 

Bess  must  understand  everything  now,  and 
so  the  worst  was  over. 

But  the  poor  child  did  not  move,  and  the 
two  came  up,  and  had  to  stop. 

"Clear  the  track,"  commanded  Edith  gayly. 
268 


A  New  Phase 


Miss  Winrose  turned  back,  and  took  Bess 
by  the  arm. 

"Come,  dear.  I  will  talk  with  you.  It 
will  be  better  to  come  along  now." 

Edith  playfully  gave  her  a  little  push. 
"Did  n't  you  ever  read  Kipling's  'A  Disturber 
of  Traffic'?  That's  what  you  are,  so  go  on." 

With  head  low,  and  without  a  word,  Bess 
started. 

"A  great  place  to  fall  into  a  brown  study, 
wasn't  it,  dearie?"  Edith  said  this  with  a 
new  grip  on  Hamil's  arm,  and  took  a  gay  lit- 
tle skipping  step. 

"Why,  yes,  I — yes,  I  should  say  it  was." 

"Do  your  wits  want  to  go  wool-gathering, 
too?  What  ails  you  all?  I  seem  to  be  the 
only  bright  one." 

"I  guess  you  are,"  he  tried  to  laugh,  and 
answered. 

After  all,  there  was  something  grimly  like 
a  mockery  about  it.  For  the  instant  he  gener- 
ously forgot  his  own  gain. 

But  there  were  no  more  worrisome  and 
awkward  crises.  Bess  asked  no  questions, 

269 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


and  from  there  on  to  the  house  everything 
went  about  as  it  would  have  done  had  there 
been  no  transformation. 

At  the  house  Edith  said  that  she  must  tell 
Bess  something,  and  whisked  after  her  and 
Miss  Winrose.  The  Major  had  called  one 
of  the  negroes,  and  gone  somewhere  with 
him.  In  this  way  the  decks  were  for  a  mo- 
ment cleared.  Hamil  felt  the  relief,  and 
with  something  like  a  bit  of  cowardice  slipped 
off  to  his  room. 

Supper  had  been  put  off,  and  when  later 
he  was  summoned  to  it  he  found  the  Major 
silent  and  very  grave,  and  Bess  had  evidently 
been  crying.  Edith  had  not  as  yet  appeared. 
Baum  and  Miss  Winrose  were  just  sitting 
down,  and  were  trying  to  look  as  if  nothing 
had  happened.  Hamil,  as  he  had  often  be- 
fore done  in  like  cases,  at  once  threw  himself 
into  the  breach.  He  spoke  to  Baum,  asking 
a  question,  and  started  a  little  discursive  talk. 

Some  ten  minutes  later  Edith  was  still 
missing,  and  Hamil,  in  some  surprise,  boldly 
asked  Bess  about  it.  He  used  what  saving 

270 


A  New  Phase 


tact  was  possible,  however,  and  spoke  of  her 
as  "Carmen." 

"Pardon  me,"  she  said.  "She  asked  me  to 
have  her  excused.  I  forgot  to  do  it.  She 
seemed  all  at  once  to  feel  the  strain  of  what 
she  had  been  through,  and  decided  to  go  to 
bed.  I  have  no  doubt  she  will  be  all  right  to- 


morrow." 


By  "all  right,"  Hamil  understood  her  to 
mean  physically.  She  could  have  no  reason 
to  suppose  that  there  would  so  quickly  be  an- 
other mental  change. 

Hamil  of  course  dropped  the  matter  here, 
and  the  meal  went  through  without  further 
allusion  to  it.  Towards  the  end  the  Major 
and  Bess,  rallying  a  little,  contributed  some 
commonplace  talk,  and  did  what  they  could 
to  make  the  end  better  than  the  beginning. 

The  atmosphere  was  not  favorable  for  inti- 
mate talk,  and  for  the  remainder  of  the  even- 
ing there  was  a  mere  flitting  about,  and  now 
and  then,  as  they  happened  to  meet,  a  passing 
word.  Hamil  spent  nearly  the  whole  of  the 
time  outdoors. 

27B 


The  Girl  With   Two  Selves 


He  came  down  to  breakfast  the  next  morn- 
ing in  a  more  settled  and  satisfactory  state  of 
mind.  He  supposed  that  the  worst  was  over 
and  that  for  a  while  things  must  go  back  to 
the  old  conditions.  The  dream  was  upper- 
most again,  and  the  unreal  was  to  be  the  real. 
It  would  be  "Jack"  and  "Edith"  once  more, 
and  the  gods  would  bless  him  in  the  happy 
phantasy.  On  his  part,  he  would  steer  a  care- 
ful course,  offending  nobody  if  he  could  help 
it,  and  hiding  his  secret  joy  deep  down  in  his 
heart. 

But  five  minutes  later  he  was  thinking 
something  very  different.  The  grave  look, 
assumed  out  of  decency,  ceased  to  be  a  sham, 
and  became  emphatically  real.  Bess  had 
just  brought  down  word  that  something  was 
wrong  with  Edith;  that  she  had  awakened, 
and  then  fallen  into  a  kind  of  stupor.  Bess 
had  tried  to  rouse  her,  but  could  not,  and 
instead,  had  found  that  she  was  sinking 
into  a  state  resembling  catalepsy.  Terribly 
alarmed,  the  girl  had  then  rushed  to  the  tele- 
phone and  called  up  a  doctor.  They  had  a 

272 


A  New  Phase 


line  to  Bar  Harbor,  and  luckily  their  family 
doctor  was  there.  He  had  already  started, 
Bess  said,  coming  in  a  swift  motor  boat.  At 
the  present  moment  the  Major  was  in  the  sick- 
room, and  would  not  be  down  for  breakfast. 

"And  I  must  go  back,"  she  concluded. 
''Please  go  on  without  me.  You  shall  hear 
at  once  of  any  change." 

But  for  the  moment  all  were  too  greatly 
surprised  and  shocked  to  move.  Hamil  felt 
his  legs  grow  weak,  and  he  put  a  steadying 
hand  on  the  back  of  a  chair. 

Miss  Winrose  finally  crossed  over,  and 
sympathetically  got  Bess  by  the  hands. 

"Why,  Bess,  that's  dreadful!  And  it's  so 
sudden!  Did  n't  you  have  any  warning?" 

"Not  the  slightest.  She  was  never  taken  so 
before." 

"What  did  the  doctor  say  when  you  told 
him?" 

"He  was  surprised;  but  I  judge  he  could  n't 
tell  just  what  to  think." 

"She  is  young  and  strong,"  Baum  hopefully 
suggested,  "and  I  do  not  understand  that  a 
18  '  273 


The  Girl  With   Two  Selves 


cataleptic  state  is  necessarily  dangerous.  At 
least,  I  have  heard  of  people  who  lay  that  way 
for  days,  and  then  came  out  all  right." 

"God  grant  that  it  may  be  so  this  time  I" 
Bess  brokenly  said. 

Quesencourt,  like  Hamil,  had  not  hitherto 
spoken.  Now,  with  some  color  lost,  he  said: 

"Would  to  the  Lord  we  could  do  some- 
thing! Is  n't  there  anything  at  all?  Can't  I 
take  the  launch,  and  go  after  another  doctor? 
One  may  not  be  enough." 

"Oh,  thank  you,  but  we  have  full  confi- 
dence in  Doctor  Carlisle,"  Bess  shook  her 
head,  and  answered.  "Besides,  if  he  thinks 
there  should  be  another  he  will  bring  him." 

"Bessie,"  said  Hamil  suddenly,  and  the 
way  he  spoke  made  the  others  turn  quickly 
that  way,  "I  have  my  idea  of  this.  I  think 
it  is  a  crisis.  You  know  what  has  just  hap- 
pened. I  don't  believe  that  any  brain  can  be 
the  battleground  of  two  personalities  and  en- 
dure it.  Something  must  happen.  In  a 
Massachusetts  case  that  I  have  been  told 
about  the  girl  finally  kept  her  natural  self, 

274 


A  New  Phase 


and  the  other — in  her  case  an  impish  and  hate- 
ful personality — quit  the  field.  Perhaps  it 
will  be  so  now.  One  self  or  the  other  may 
emerge  from  behind  the  curtain  of  this  sleep, 
and  forever  keep  the  throne.  I  somehow  feel 
that  it  is  going  to  be  so.  Yet  it  may  be  a 
(deadly  fight,  and  we  know  that  cataleptic 
sleeps  sometimes  end  in  death.  God  be  mer- 
ciful, and  spare  her!  I  am  going  out  a  lit- 
tle while,  but  I  will  be  back  by  the  time  the 
doctor  gets  here.  I  don't  want  any  break- 
fast." 

He  bit  his  lip,  turned  abruptly,  and  strode 
out. 


275 


CHAPTER  XIX 

HAMIL'S  PROGNOSIS 

HE  left  them  all  a  little  confused  and 
surprised.  The  manner  was  not  like 
his,  for  now  it  betrayed  the  personal 
note,  and  moreover  had  become  bold  and 
dominating.  He  seemed  to  have  forgotten, 
or  in  the  stress  to  have  ignored,  those  scruples 
as  to  his  social  limitations  that  he  had  hith- 
erto been  tactfully  mindful  of.  Even  Baum 
and  Miss  Winrose,  who  of  course  were  in- 
formed, were  for  the  moment  surprised  along 
with  the  rest.  They  had  not  supposed  that 
Hamil  was  ready  to  go  so  far  in  raising  ques- 
tions, and  perhaps  in  placing  himself  ulti- 
mately at  a  disadvantage.  As  for  Quesen- 
court,  he  did  have  a  little  indirect  light,  to  be 
sure,  but  not  enough  for  present  understand- 
ing. The  chief  impression  that  he  had  natu- 
rally was  that  Hamil  had  grown  bold,  even 

276 


Hamil's  Prognosis 


to  assurance,  but  had  a  measure  of  excuse  for 
it  in  his  regard  for  the  girl.  In  that  little 
time  on  the  rock  the  Englishman  had  in  a 
measure  discerned  how  matters  stood,  even 
though  the  idea  itself — any  hope  that  was  be- 
hind it — seemed  preposterous. 

But  Bess  finally  took  up  the  broken  thread. 
This  was  no  time  for  trifles,  or  idle  specula- 
tions. She  was  surprised  and  troubled,  and 
if  the  concern  of  Hamil  was  to  mean  too 
much,  she  was  ready  to  draw  the  sword 
against  him,  but  just  now  there  was  neither 
time  nor  a  certain  call.  She  glanced  after 
him,  and  as  if  wholly  unsuspecting,  sighingly 
answered : 

"Poor  Mr.  Dana!  He  makes  this  almost 
his  own  trouble.  But  then,  he  was  for  a  long 
time,  as  you  might  say,  head  nurse,  and  he 
learned  to  think  a  good  deal  of  Carmen.  But 
I  must  go  back.  I  beg  of  you  all  to  eat,  and 
not  to  let  this  trouble,  bad  as  it  seems  to  be, 
spoil  your  enjoyment.  If  you  want  to  be  of 
use — I  will  put  it  that  way,  as  I  know  you 
feel  so — try  to  act  as  if  nothing  had  happened. 

277 


The  Girl  With   Two  Selves 


You  can  entertain  one  another  till  we  can  do 
better.  You  go  ahead,  Marcella,  and  set  the 
example." 

Miss  Winrose  patted  her  hand. 

"Yes,  dear,  since  you  feel  so — Come,  gen- 
tlemen." 

Men  of  the  ordinary  temperament  are  gen- 
erally ready  for  their  meals,  and  though 
Quesencourt  was  grieved  and  worried,  and 
Baum  genuinely  sympathetic,  they  did  not 
hold  off  longer.  In  fact,  in  spite  of  their 
sober  faces,  they  ate  as  much  as  usual. 

Meanwhile,  Hamil  was  walking  up  and 
down  the  path  that  led  to  the  wharf.  He 
could  not  content  himself  to  keep  still.  After 
a  while  he  crossed  over  to  where  a  high,  bar- 
ren knoll  gave  the  range  of  the  westerly 
waters.  From  here  he  could  see  any  craft 
coming  from  Bar  Harbor.  In  making  this 
change  he  had  fallen  under  the  observation 
of  Miss  Winrose,  who  happened  just  then 
to  have  strolled  out  on  one  of  the  upstairs 
piazzas.  She  watched  him  a  moment,  he  un- 
knowing, and  her  face  clouded.  With  a 

278 


Hamil's  Prognosis 


brushing  sweep  of  her  little  hand  she  walked 
back  into  the  house.  "It 's  no  use.  He  wants 
her,  and  if  she  should  die  he  would  have  a 
•wanderlust,  and  never  give  me  a  chance. 
It's  all  off." 

Hamil  made  out  the  fast-driven  power  boat 
at  last,  and  turned  and  swung  at  a  fast  gait 
down  to  the  wharf.  Before  the  launch  was 
around  the  inner  point  the  Major  came  down. 
He  smiled  forlornly  as  he  saw  Hamil. 

"We  still  have  our  ups  and  downs,  Dana, 
and  lately  it  has  been  mostly  downs.  I  feel 
pretty  nigh  broken  up." 

Hamil  did  his  best  to  force  a  cheerful  look. 

"But  there  may  be  good  luck  just  ahead. 
How  is  she  now?" 

"The  same.  She  is  rigid,  like  one  who  is 
dead.  I  don't  know  what  it  means." 

"I  understand  she  was  never  so  before?" 

"Never!  She  never  had  any  kind  of  fit  in 
the  past." 

"I  have  always  understood  that  few  except 
hysterical  people  were  subject  to  catalepsy. 
She  is  n't  of  that  temperament." 

279 


The  Girl  With   T<wo  Selves 


"I  don't  know  what  the  rule  is;  she  isn't 
hysterical." 

"Then  who  knows  but  in  her  case  it  means 
something  far-reaching,  and  that  will  bring 
about  a  great  change — the  breaking  up  of  all 
that  has  been  so  strange  and  abnormal?" 

"I  never  thought  of  it  in  that  way."  The 
old  man  brightened  perceptibly.  "But  what 
warrant  have  you  for  thinking  so?" 

"No  warrant;  but  the  thing  is  certainly  pos- 
sible." 

"Would  to  God  it  might  be  so!  I  would 
risk  even  her  life  to  bring  it  about.  As  she 
has  been  lately  I  have  n't  felt  that  she  was 
really  living.  She  has  been  like  Mahomet's 
coffin,  between  heaven  and  earth.  Of  course 
you  have  helped  us  all  you  could,  but  it  has 
been  trying  and  humiliating.  For  the  last 
few  days,  since  she  has  been  herself  again,  I 
have  had  some  new  hopes,  but  you  see  how 
little  foundation  there  was  for  them." 

The  launch  was  now  turning  in  for  the 
wharf.  A  man  forward  stood  up  and  waved 
his  cap. 

280 


Hamil's  Prognosis 


The  Major  flourished  his  hand  in  answer. 

"Is  that  Dr.  Carlisle?"  asked  Hamil. 

"Yes." 

"Then  we  shall  soon  have  something  be- 
sides guesses  to  go  on." 

"I  hope  so.  He  knows  more  about  her 
than  anybody  else,  but  at  that  he  has  never 
done  more  than  guess.  He  has  always  said 
that  her  case  was  a  compound  of — what  was 
the  word — psychiatry,  and  physiology?  Any- 
way, it 's  serious  enough." 

The  launch  swept  in,  and  as  the  power  was 
shut  off,  and  it  rounded  to  at  the  wharf,  a  lit- 
tle wiry,  black-bearded  man  jumped  actively 
ashore.  He  reached  back  for  his  overcoat, 
and  a  "grip,"  and  when  they  had  been  handed 
to  him  started  almost  at  a  run  across  the 
wharf.  The  Major  met  him,  and  they 
heartily  shook  hands. 

Hamil  now  observed  that  the  celebrated 
alienist  and  surgeon  was  past  his  youth,  but 
as  active  as  a  cat,  and  that  his  black  eyes 
gleamed  with  zeal  and  virile  energy.  His 
gray  business  suit  and  his  little  Scotch  cap 

281 


The  Girl  With   Two  Selves 


gave  him  a  boyish  touch,  and  this  went  well 
with  his  light,  swift  movements. 

"How  does  she  seem  now,  Major?  Still  in 
the  cataleptic  sleep?" 

"Yes." 

"Quite  bad,  but  it  might  be  a  good  deal 


worse." 


"I  suppose  that 's  true.  We  '11  go  along. 
But  first,  I  want  to  introduce  Mr.  Dana.  Dr. 
Carlisle,  this  is  a  New  York  gentleman  that 
has  been  very  good  to  us.  I  will  explain 
later." 

The  two  men  shook  hands.  The  'doctor 
gave  Hamil  a  swift  running  over  with  his 
flame-point  eyes,  and  then  turned  them  else- 
where. With  the  last  word  of  the  conven- 
tional civility  he  was  ready  for  something 
else. 

"Well,  how  is  little  chubby  Bess?" 

"She  is  all  right,  but  of  course  upset  in 
mind.  With  everything  else,  she  was  ex- 
pecting a  sort  of  beau  today,  but  he  could  n't 
come;  so  she  has  kind  of  met  with  the  rub- 
bers." 

282 


Hamil's  Prognosis 


"Good  discipline  for  her.  That 's  what  we 
say  when  it  does  n't  come  into  our  own  dish." 

But  the  Major  was  too  full  of  his  trouble 
to  stay  long  away  from  it.  He  went  back 
now  by  saying: 

"Mr.  Dana,  here,  in  talking  about  Carmen, 
has  just  advanced  a  new  idea.  He  has  sug- 
gested that  possibly  this  catalepsy  may  mean 
a  general  turn-around  with  her,  and  that  she 
may  come  out  of  it  to  stay  her  natural  self.  I 
tell  him  God  grant  it." 

"Of  course  I  spoke  only  as  a  layman,  and 
in  the  way  of  a  guess,"  Hamil  explained. 
"As  she  has  never  been  subject  to  catalepsy  I 
thought  it  was  likely  to  mean  something  out 
of  the  common." 

"I  have  known  laymen  to  make  astonish- 
ingly good  guesses,"  the  little  man  emphat- 
ically said.  "You  are  pretty  well  acquainted 
with  Miss  McAllister,  then?" 

"I  may  say  so.  I  have  been  a  sort  of  nurse, 
if  you  may  call  it  that,  through  the  time  of 
her  last  hallucination." 

"He  is  the  man  I  wrote  you  about,"  the 
283 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


Major  put   in.     "Carmen   fancied   she  was 
married  to  him." 

"Ah,  now  you  are  informing.  Very  good! 
Later,  Mr.  Dana,  I  may  wish  to  ask  you  some 
questions.'* 

"I  shall  be  glad  to  answer  them." 

The  doctor  was  thoughtful  for  a  moment. 
Then  he  said: 

"It  is  n't  by  any  means  impossible  that  your 
guess  about  her  present  condition  may  turn 
out  correct.  With  such  strange  elements 
present  almost  anything  may  happen." 

"Doctor,"  McAllister  spoke  up,  and  his 
voice  trembled,  "I  am  ready  to  take  about  any 
chance.  I  mean  I  would  if  it  was  in  my 
power.  I  want  her  one  thing  or  the  other, 
and  I  tell  you  I  shan't  complain  if  she  loses 
her  real  self,  a'nd  always  stays  the  bogus  one. 
Either  way  she  is  all  right,  and  though  of 
course  I  should  prefer  to  have  the  normal  per- 
son, yet  I  would  n't  whimper  if  it  was  the 
other  way.  You  have  seen  her  that  way,  and 
you  know  how  nice  and  agreeable  she  was. 
You  joked  at  the  time — I  suppose  to  keep  my 

284 


Hamil's  Prognosis 


spirits  up — that  she  was  an  improvement  in 
disposition  on  the  real  Carmen." 

"I  know  I  did,  and  I  was  n't  a  great  way 
from  the  truth.  As  the  counterfeit  she  was 
charming.  That  of  course  is  n't  meaning  any 
disparagement  of  the  real  girl.  Well,  then, 
Major,  you  may  lose  your  double  pearl,  and 
have  instead  one  big  crown  jewel.  That 
means  taking  a  little  stock  in  Mr.  Dana's 
prognosis." 

Hamil  smiled.  Yet  his  eyes  had  quietly 
kindled.  Say  that  Edith,  as  an  entity  and 
never  to  be  dispossessed,  came  out  of  that 
battle-chamber?  What  might  not  he  hope 
for  then?  Aye,  who  could  gainsay  him? 
Yet  there  was  the  other  side.  Suppose  it 
should  be  a  permanent  Carmen?  From  the 
recent  happenings  he  would  even  then  have  a 
little  hope,  and  he  was  no  longer  trying  to  de- 
ceive himself  by  pretending  that  he  should 
not  prize  such  a  hope.  Carmen  was  not 
Edith,  but  fast  she  had  followed  after,  and 
now  and  again  he  had  seen  the  leader  over- 
taken, and  a  sweet  and  almost  bewildering 

285 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


little  incarnation  follow.  Yes,  and  if  he  won 
there  would  always  be  before  his  eyes  Edith's 
outward  self,  which  would  ever  be  more 
precious  than  any  other  body  of  woman,  and 
sometimes  flashes  of  the  Edith  soul. 

Yet  one  of  these  things  meant  great  hope, 
with  joy  and  completeness,  if  there  were  no 
mishaps;  the  other  stood  for  a  doubtful 
chance,  and  a  lesser  fulfillment.  If  there 
were  anything,  then,  in  what  the  doctor  had 
called  his  prognosis,  he  was  about  to  test  his 
sturdiness  and  patience  in  a  way  they  had 
never  been  tested  before. 

And  last,  as  absurdities  trip  always  upon 
the  heels  of  sacred  things,  as  it  were,  like  gar- 
goyles sprinkled  along  the  facades  of  the 
temples,  a  whim  darted  through  his  mind. 
He  relaxed,  and  mentally  laughed.  No 
harm,  but  he  thought  of  Stockton's  tale,  and 
repeated :  "  'Now,  which  came  out,  the  lady, 
or  the  tiger?' '  He  was  back  again  to  the 
higher  level  soon  enough. 

The  doctor  grew  more  silent  as  they  came 
nearer  the  house,  and  when  they  were  inside 

286 


Hamil's  Prognosis 


he  merely  stopped  to  throw  off  his  cap,  and 
then  silently  followed  McAllister  to  the  sick 
room. 

Hamil  hung  back,  and  at  the  last  slipped 
away,  and  started  again  on  one  of  his  autom- 
aton walks. 


287 


CHAPTER  XX 

IN  THE  DEEP  WOODS 

IN  fifteen  minutes,  which  seemed  to  him 
like  half  an  hour,  he  went  back  to  the 
house.  The  doctor  was  in  the  office, 
talking  with  the  Major.  Bess  was  standing 
in  the  hall,  and  nobody  else  was  in  sight. 

He  halted,  and  Bess  turned  to  him.  In  an- 
swer to  his  inquiring  look: 

"He  can't  tell  much  about  it  yet.  It  may 
be  days  before  there  is  any  change.  He  is 
going  back,  but  we  are  to  'phone  him  every 
day,  and  he  will  hold  himself  at  our  call. 
He  says  that  he  sees  nothing  immediately 
dangerous  in  her  condition.  If  she  continues 
in  her  present  state  any  length  of  time  we 
shall  have  to  resort  to  artificial  nourishment, 
but  he  says  that  on  that  she  would  keep  alive 
for  weeks." 

Harml  drew  a  long  breath. 


In  the  Deep  Woods 


"Well,  I  suppose  that 's  as  encouraging  as 
we  can  expect.  I  have  read  up  a  little  on 
catalepsy,"  he  went  on,  "for  the  subject  inter- 
ests me,  and  I  find  that  cataleptics  generally 
live  through  these  trances.  She  certainly 
ought  to,  as  young  and  strong  as  she  is." 

"Oh,  it  seems  so,  and  I  won't  think  it  can 
be  different,  but  at  the  same  time,  we  know 
that  hers  is  not  one  of  the  ordinary  cases.  I 
— I  am  going  to  be  prepared  for  the  worst." 

Her  lip  quivered  and  she  turned  her  head 
away. 

"Try  to  be  brave,"  he  encouraged,  and  his 
own  voice  had  a  tremor  in  it.  "We  must  n't 
despair  till  we  have  to." 

She  felt  for  her  handkerchief  and  wiped 
her  eyes.  It  was  evident  that  she  was  near 
breaking  down. 

"We  are  depending  on  you,"  He  quickly 
said,  seeing  how  it  stood  with  her.  "You  are 
now  your  father's  mainstay.  You  mustn't 
fail  him." 

She  made  a  brave  struggle  and  put  away 
the  handkerchief. 

19  289 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


"I  shan't.  I  know  how  it  is;  you  are 
right." 

The  doctor  was  taking  leave  of  McAllister, 
and  facing  about;  Bess  waited  for  him. 

Outwardly,  at  least,  he  was  cheerful.  He 
stopped  and  slapped  Bessie's  shoulder  lightly 
with  his  cap. 

"We  shall  not  allow  any^  blues  yet.  No 
cause  for  them." 

She  tried  to  smile. 

"I  am  going  to  be  brave."  , 

"Of  course  you  are.  In  emergencies 
women  ought  to  be  braver  than  men.  Na- 
ture has  given  them  a  reserve  to  draw  upon. 
I  shall  be  at  the  other  end  of  the  'phone,  and 
you  know  what  to  do.  Mr.  Dana,  could  I  see 
you  a  moment?" 

"Certainly." 

"Good-by,  girl." 

"Good-by,  Doctor." 

Hamil  went  with  him  "down  the  walk,  and 
the  physician  at  once  lost  his  smile,  and 
hardened  for  business. 

"You  Ve  had  a  difficult  task,  I  find,  and 
290 


In  the  Deep  Woods 


have  done  it  remarkably  well.  I  did  n't 
know  so  much  about  it  before.  McAllister 
feels  that  it  has  n't  been  a  matter  of  dollars 
and  cents  with  you,  and  he  can't  be  grateful 
enough.  I  guess  that's  all  right.  But  as 
you  've  gone  in  like  that  you  must  have  made 
the  case  a  close  study.  What  do  you  think?" 

"Why,"  said  Hamil,  surprised,  "I  don't 
know  that  I  have  any  positive  opinion.  I  am 
hardly  qualified  to  have  one." 

"Don't  be  too  modest.  I  am  only  a  human 
being,  and  I  am  seeking  light.  Contrary  to 
the  common  opinion,  a  doctor  can't  clap  on 
magical  X-rays  and  see  into  everything. 
Give  me  some  idea  of  the  girl's  looks  and  ac- 
tions, as  you  have  noticed  them  from  day  to 
day." 

"I  will  do  the  best  I  can,"  Hamil  returned 
after  a  moment's  hesitation. 

"That  will  be  better  than  anybody  else  can 
do.  You  're  not  too  old  and  practical,  like 
the  Major,  nor  too  young  and  inexperienced, 
like  Bess." 

Thereupon  Hamil,  going  along  slowly,  and 
291 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


at  times  with  pauses,  gave  the  substance  of 
all  he  knew.  Of  course  he  did  not  speak  of 
his  own  feelings. 

The  doctor  listened  with  silent  attention. 

"Good  enough!" 

He  felt  in  his  pocket,  and  got  out  a  note- 
book and  pencil.  After  he  had  made  a  brief 
entry  he  said: 

"That  helps.  I  know  now  I  am  in  the 
deep  woods.  I  supposed  before  that  I  was." 

Hamil  was  a  little  surprised,  as  well  as  dis- 
appointed. Perhaps  he  showed  this  in  his 
face,  for  the  doctor,  after  a  glance  that  way, 
resumed : 

"It  is  always  worth  something  to  a  discov- 
erer to  know  that  he  does  n't  know.  It  saves 
taking  wrong  roads.  From  all  that  I  have 
to  work  on  now  I  believe  that  the  case  is,  in 
some  respects,  sui  generis.  Therefore,  we  Ve 
got  simply  to  wait.  When  something  de- 
terminative and  tangible  appears  I  '11  be 
ready  for  it." 

"I  see,"  Hamil  rather  wonderingly  an- 
swered, He  began  to  understand  the  man's 

292 


In  the  Deep  Woods 


way,  which  was  so  simple,  unpretending  and 
straightforward  as  to  be  almost  puzzling  at 
first.  It  was  rather  uncommon. 

"I  understand  from  McAllister,"  the  doc- 
tor then  went  on,  "that  you  will,  for  the  pres- 
ent, at  least,  remain  with  them.  In  the  event 
that  the  girl  pulls  through,  and  that  her  late 
hallucination  continues,  they  will  of  course 
need  you." 

"They  could  n't  drive  me  away  witH  a  shot- 
gun!" Hamil  laughed.  He  broke  a  twig 
from  a  bush  they  were  passing,  and  twisted 
it  to  a  wisp.  "As  you  say,"  he  added  a  little 
hastily,  "they  need  me." 

The  doctor  did  not  seem  to  notice  this  slight 
departure  from  the  manner  of  strict  business. 
He  did  not  answer  in  direct  terms,  as  if  such 
an  answer  were  not  required.  In  fact,  after 
a  little  pause,  he  merely  nodded. 

Hamil  here  thought  of  something  else,  and 
with  a  slight  show  of  vexation  started  in 
again: 

"It  is  n't  tfie  money  that  makes  me  seem  a 
little  zealous.  I  see  that  I  might  be  misun- 

293 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


derstood  about  that,  and  though  of  course  you 
don't  care,  I  want  to  stand  right.  No,  I  am 
honestly  interested  in  the  case,  and — and  in 
the  person  herself." 

The  doctor  wore  a  thick  mustache,  and 
a  short  beard.  At  this  point  the  mustache 
lifted  a  little  at  the  corners.  He  nodded. 

"It  occurred  to  me  that  you  might  feel  that 
way." 

"You  mean,"  said  Hamil,  seeing  the  look, 
"that  I  could  make  that  statement  emphatic. 
Well,  then,  I  do.  I  am  tremendously  inter- 
ested in  her." 

"That's  straightforward!  All  right,  sir. 
And  it  was  n't  a  hard  guess  that  you  felt  that 
way,  for  the  girl  is  certainly  as  alluring  as  a 
woman  can  be.  The  trouble  is — and  to  be 
plain,  it  is  extremely  serious — I  don't  at  pres- 
ent see  how  your  interest  is  going  to  do  you 
any  good.  If  the  girl  gets  over  this  she  may 
still  have  a  dual  nature,  and  that  implies  a 
serious  doubt  of  her  sanity.  In  fact,  there 
are  confessed  aberrations.  Such  ought  to 
bar  marriage,  even  if  you  could  win  her  in 

294 


In  the  Deep  Woods 


both  personalities,  which  I  should  suppose 
would  be  unlikely.  And  then  her  father  cer- 
tainly would  n't  consent.  He  thinks  a  good 
deal  of  you,  I  know,  and  with  him  I  don't  be- 
lieve lack  of  money  would  stand  in  the  way, 
but  the  other  things  would.  I  have  gone  out 
of  my  way  to  say  this,  I  know,  but  now  and 
then  I  allow  myself  to  be  unprofessional." 

Hamil  had  winced  under  the  words,  but 
now  he  lighted  up  gratefully. 

"Don't  apologize.  In  fact,  I  virtually 
drew  out  what  you  said.  I  am  obliged  to 
you,  Doctor,  and  I  am  aware  that  what  you 
say  is  true.  I  can't  do  anything  unless  there 
is  a  permanent  change  in  her,  and  probably 
nothing  unless  what  has  been  her  abnormal 
self  should  become  the  normal  one.  I  sup- 
pose that  seems  more  than  doubtful  to  you, 
but  a  layman  can  dream,  and  I  have  dreamed 
that.  I  wanted  to  dream  it,  for,  Doctor,  I 
care  all  the  world  for  her,  and  that 's  God's 
truth!  I  can't  argue  about  her  sanity,  or  in- 
sanity, for  that  does  n't  fit  in  with  what  I  feel. 
I  merely  know  that  when  she  is  what  you  call 

295 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


abnormal  she  is  sane  to  me,  and  the  loveliest 
and  most  lovable  woman  on  earth.  I  want 
to  do  right,  and  I  am  going  to,  but  I  can't 
quite  give  up  hope.  I  think  I  should  go 
crazy  if  I  did.  I  know  about  the  other  diffi- 
culties, but  I  think  I  could  meet  them.  But 
one  other  explanation  I  will  make.  I  do  it  to 
clear  myself  of  any  lingering  doubt  as  to  my 
motives.  I  am  not  a  poor  man,  Doctor,  but 
a  rich  one.  None  of  the  family  know  it  as 
yet,  but  later  I  shall  of  course  tell  them.  It 
came  about  through  my  wish  to  save  McAllis- 
ter a  little  embarrassment.  I  thought  he 
would  feel  freer  to  hire  a  poor  man  than  to 
ask  a  favor  of  a  rich  one.  My  name  in  full 
is  John  Dana  Hamil,  and  here  is  my  card." 

The  doctor,  as  he  took  the  card,  did  not 
take  the  trouble  to  look  at  him.  He  glanced 
at  the  card,  and  put  it  in  his  pocket-book. 

"I  seem  to  be  taking  as  much  of  your  time 
as  your  patient,"  said  Hamil,  then  seeming 
to  feel  an  apology  necessary  added,  "You  may 
believe  that  I  did  n't  start  to  do  it,  but  it  sort 
of  came  itself." 

296 


In  the  Deep  Woods 


"Don't  say  a  word!  It's  the  biggest  ro- 
mance I  was  ever  mixed  up  with,  and  I 
would  n't  have  missed  it  for  the  world!  Doc- 
tors that  are  good  for  anything  have  to  have 
imagination,  for  that  precedes  the  work  it- 
self; yet  imagination  must  have  something  to 
feed  on,  and  what  could  be  better  than  this? 
If  you  '11  forgive  me,  I  '11  go  further,  and  say 
that  it  approaches  excitement." 

"Oh,  well,"  laughed  Hamil,  relieved,  "if 
that  is  the  way  you  can  look  at  it,  then  all 
right." 

"Yes,  it 's  as  I  say.  But  as  to  your  hopes, 
and  the  outcome —  Well,  you  are  right,  and 
don't  give  up.  My  experience  has  taught  me 
humility;  and  also  as  we  believe,  there's  a 
Power  that  sometimes  takes  these  things  into 
His  own  hands.  .  .  .  My  boat  is  waiting  for 
me,  so  I  will  say  good-by." 

He  put  out  his  hand,  and  Hamil,  his  eyes 
blinking  suspiciously,  heartily  grasped  it. 

"Good-by,  Doctor.  I  feel  better  for  hav- 
ing talked  with  you." 

"I  wish  I  could  be  as  pessimistic  with  my 
297 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


patients  and  come  out  as  well.  It  would  be 
easier  than  lying." 

He  sprang  aboard  the  boat  and  she  swung 
off. 

Hamil  lingered  a  moment,  but  his  look 
gradually  sobered,  and  he  turned,  and  went 
slowly  back  up  the  path. 


298 


CHAPTER  XXI 

IF  NOT  EDITH — ? 

BUT  the  watching  and  waiting  had  only 
just  begun.     The  rest  of  the  day  noth- 
ing else  happened,  and  a  second  day 
was  also  blank.     The  third  day  the  doctor 
came  again,  and  this  time  brought  with  him 
a  trained  nurse.     He  found  no  change  in  the 
patient's  condition,  and  reported  that  there 
was  still  nothing  to  do  but  wait. 

The  fourth  morning  Hamil  went  out  for 
an  early  walk,  and  refreshed  himself  by  a 
plunge  in  the  very  cold  water.  On  the  way 
back,  at  the  top  of  the  rise,  just  beyond  the 
little  glade,  he  came  upon  the  Major.  The 
old  gentleman  was  sitting  on  a  log  in  a  heavy 
and  dejected  way,  smoking.  His  elbows 
were  on  his  knees,  and  his  cigar  had  been  so 
indifferently  attended  to  that  it  had  almost 
gone  out. 

299 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


He  saw  Hamil  coming  and  brightened. 
He  sat  up  and  gave  his  cigar  a  reviving  puff. 

Hamil  put  on  as  brave  a  front  as  he  could 
and  flourished  his  walking  switch  briskly. 

"Good  morning,  Major.  Taking  an  early 
airing,  as  well  as  myself?  I  Ve  had  a  plunge 
in  the  water,  besides.  Splendid  weather." 

"Fine.     Didn't  you  find  the  water  cold?" 

"Yes.     But  for  that  reason  bracing." 

The  Major  took  out  his  cigar,  and  in  an 
absent  way  looked  at  it.  Hamil  approached 
and  sat  down  beside  him. 

"How  is  she?    Any  change?" 

"No;  just  the  same." 

"As  I  Ve  insisted  from  the  start,  she  must 
pull  through.  Why  shouldn't  she?  Isn't 
she  all  right  as  to  strength  and  vitality?  The 
doctor  talked  hopefully  to  me." 

"That's  part  of  the  trade.  But  he  finally 
admitted,  did  n't  he,  that  it  was  mainly  guess- 
work?" 

"Eh — well,  in  a  way  he  did." 

McAllister  put  his  cigar  back,  and  smoked 
for  a  moment  in  glum  silence.  Hamil,  a 

300 


//  Not  Edith—? 


trifle  disconcerted,  shifted  his  place  on  the 
log,  and  switched  some  dust  from  his  shoes. 

With  a  sigh,  McAllister  dropped  his  cigar 
and  ground  out  the  spark  with  his  heel. 

"It 's  a  hard  proposition,  Dana.  Of  course 
I  want  her  to  get  well,  but  I  am  almost  as 
anxious  for  her  to  get  back  her  right  senses. 
It  is  no  living,  in  the  true  sense  of  it,  the  way 
she  has  been.  Strange  what  could  ever  have 
made  her  so !  There  's  no  insanity  in  the  fam- 
ily, and  she  had  no  sickness,  or  other  trouble, 
to  bring  it  on." 

"But  I  don't  call  it  insanity,  or  not 
wholly  that,"  Hamil  spoke  almost  doggedly. 
"There  have  been  some  aberrations,  as  the 
doctor  calls  them,  but  he  does  n't  say  that 
these  cover  everything.  It  seems  that  her 
case  has  many  features  like  the  ones  reported 
in  the  medical  journals.  There  is  something 
besides  insanity  to  explain.  In  my  opinion 
there  are  real  grounds  for  the  theory  of  a  dual 
nature.  No  hypothesis  of  any  sort  of  brain 
disturbance  can  account  for  all  that  has  hap- 
pened ;  it  is  a  mere  expedient,  for  lack  of  any- 

301 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


thing  better,  to  classify  such  a  condition  under 
the  head  of  insanity." 

"Perhaps,"  the  old  man  said  wearily;  "but 
practically  it  amounts  to  about  the  same  thing. 
A  part  of  the  time  she  has  been  herself,  and  a 
part  of  the  time  she  has  n't." 

"But  if  she  has  had  virtually  two  selves," 
Hamil  persisted,  "it  can't  be  just  that  way. 
Now  to  me  Edith  has  been  about  as  real  as 
Carmen,  and — to  be  plain  about  it — fully  as 
charming  and  interesting." 

"It  is  n't  exactly  news  to  me  that  you  feel 
so,"  the  old  man  said  with  a  faint  smile. 
"Bess  noticed  it,  and  called  it  to  my  atten- 
tion. I  told  her  I  thought  it  was  rather  natu- 
ral, under  the  circumstances.  I  knew  that  it 
made  no  difference  in  any  direction,  and  so 
I  did  n't  think  much  more  about  it.  You  be- 
haved like  a  gentleman,  which  was  all  I 
asked." 

"Well,  sir,"  said  Hamil  with  deliberation, 
but  with  an  underlying  note  that  was  a  little 
like  defiance,  "that  is  true  enough,  but  even 
gentlemen  are  human.  While  your  daugh- 

302 


//  Not  Edith—? 


ter  was  Edith  I  fell  in  love  with  her.  That 's 
the  straight,  simple  truth.  I  just  could  n't 
help  it,  and  after  the  beginning,  I  did  n't  try. 
It  was  my  first  experience  of  the  kind.  I 
am  going  to  be  above-board  about  this,  no 
matter  what  the  consequences  may  be.  If  it 
should  please  God  to  give  Edith  permanently 
the  individuality  that  has  hitherto  been  di- 
vided with  Carmen  I  shall  ask  your  consent 
to  marry  her." 

McAllister  opened  his  eyes  wide,  and 
stared  in  the  unflinching  and  resolute  face. 
In  fact,  Hamil  was  so  desperately  in  earnest, 
and  had  braced  himself  so  sturdily  for  what 
it  seemed  must  come,  that  his  look  was  almost 
grim. 

But  the  old  man  did  not  take  very  long  to 
recover  his  bearings.  He  brought  his  lips  to- 
gether, turned  his  eyes  elsewhere,  and  finally 
nodded. 

"That 's  something  of  a  stunner,  and  I 
was  n't  looking  for  it.  I  did  n't  suppose  you 
were  falling  in  love  with  a  crazy  girl.  No 
doubt  it 's  square  to  tell  me  now,  but  I  should 

303 


The  Girl  With   Two  Selves 


be  better  satisfied  if  you  had  spoken  out 
sooner.  But  let  that  go.  We'll  talk  busi- 
ness." He  wheeled  sufficiently  to  look  Hamil 
directly  in  the  face.  "You  ought  to  see  that 
your  idea  is  an  impossible  one — even  prepos- 
terous. There  's  no  sense  in  saying  that  she 
may  come  back  and  be  permanently  'Edith.' 
There 's  no  such  person  as  'Edith,'  and  never 
was.  If  she  is  permanently  anything  it  will 
be  herself.  Even  this  New  England  girl  that 
has  been  quoted  so  much  finally  came  back 
as  her  original  self.  Then  if  my  daughter 
should  come  out  of  this  and  start  in  where 
she  left  off,  she  would  simply  be  crazy,  and 
would  have  to  be  treated  accordingly.  What, 
then,  is  the  use  for  you  to  talk  about  marry- 
ing her?  In  discussing  this  I  have  not  said 
anything  about  money  matters,  or  my  lack  of 
knowledge  about  your  past  history.  I  don't 
care  about  the  money,  but  before  you  mar- 
ried into  my  family  I  should  insist  on  having 
your  record.  In  fact,  I  shall  want  it  if  you 
keep  on  as  you  are.  I  ought  to  have  asked  it 
before.  Now  there's  one  more  thing:  are 

304 


//  Not  Edith—? 


you  interested  in  the  girl  as  she  really  is,  and 
do  you  have  reason  to  suppose  that  she  cares 
about  you?  As  far  as  she  is  concerned,  I 
have  n't  seen  any  signs  of  it." 

Hamil  was  merely  grave  now.  What- 
ever there  had  been  that  was  more  assertive 
was  gone. 

"In  a  sense  I  care  about  her,"  he  deliber- 
ately answered,  "for  it  is  impossible  to  regard 
her  as  wholly  another  person  from  Edith, 
and  as  I  see  more  of  her  this  feeling  strength- 
ens. But  on  her  part,  as  Carmen,  I  don't 
think  she  cares  for  me.  I  mean  that  I  don't 
feel  that  I  should  stand  any  particular  show 
to  win  her.  Still,  of  course  I  don't  know.  I 
will  say  one  thing;  I  don't  believe  she  has  any 
sentiment  for  Mr.  Quesencourt." 

"But  of  that,"  said  the  Major  sharply,  for 
the  moment  ignoring  the  rest,  "I  don't  see 
that  you  are  qualified  to  judge?" 

"I  gave  my  opinion  merely  as  such,"  said 
Hamil,  unmoved. 

McAllister  still  looked  a  little  dark. 

"But  I  suppose   I   ought  to  explain  one 

20  305 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


thing,"  Hamil  seemed  to  have  another 
thought,  and  resumed.  "That  is  about  my 
personal  record.  In  a  sense  it  is  bound  up 
in  another  matter  which  is  that  of  my  iden- 
tity. Mr.  McAllister,  I  have  deceived  you  in 
one  thing.  I  did  it  at  the  start  to  make  the 
present  arrangement  easier  for  you.  I  am 
not  John  Dana,  but  John  Dana  Hamil,  and 
I  am  the  son  of  Louis  R.  Hamil,  formerly  of 
Newark.  So  that  I  am  cleared  of  any  lurk- 
ing doubt  as  to  my  being  possibly  some  im- 
pecunious adventurer.  Here  is  my  card, 
with  my  New  York  address;  I  have  letters, 
and  other  proofs,  in  my  grip,  and  of  course 
you  can  easily  investigate  for  yourself." 

He  handed  the  card  over. 

The  Major,  with  another  change  of  ex- 
pression, took  it.  He  glanced  at  it,  and 
turned  it  over  in  his  ringers,  evidently  trying 
to  get  the  idea  into  his  head.  Then  he  looked 
back  at  Hamil,  ran  his  whole  face  over  scru- 
tinizingly,  and  with  a  laugh  put  out  his  hand. 

"Of  course  you  are  the  son  of  Lou  Hamil. 
Now  that  I  know  what  to  look  for  I  can  pin 

306 


//  Not  Edith—? 


it  down.  Well,  but  you  have  given  me  some 
lively  surprises  today." 

Hamil  was  already  smiling.  They  shook 
hands,  and  the  Major,  not  content  with  that, 
patted  him  on  the  back. 

"But  you  made  one  mistake,  John." 

"What  was  that?" 

"Your  playing  this  little  game  on  me.  Of 
course  you  meant  right,  and  your  motive  was 
very  nice  and  delicate,  but  you  did  n't  need 
to  do  it.  Your  father  and  I  were  better 
friends  than  I  see  you  realize,  and  I  should 
have  accepted  an  offer  of  help  from  his  son 
without  hesitation." 

"Then  I  am  sorry  I  did  n't  come  straight 
out.  But  you  see,  my  father  died  a  number 
of  years  ago,  and  I  did  n't  know  very  much 
about  his  personal  life,  nor  his  friendships." 

"I  understand.  It's  all  right.  But  now, 
John — I  am  going  to  call  you  that,  instead  of 
being  formal — " 

"Excuse  me.  Make  it  Jack.  That  will  be 
less  formal  still,  and  will  sound  much  more 
natural." 

307 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


"All  right,  'Jack,'  then.  But  what  was  I 
going  to  say?  Oh,  this  puts  the  matter  you 
were  just  speaking  of  in  a  somewhat  differ- 
ent light.  I  really  can't  see  how  I  can  have 
any  other  opinion  about  the  situation,  but  of 
course  I  look  in  a  different  way  at  you. 
There  is  no  family  in  the  United  States  that 
I  regard  higher  than  the  Hamils,  and  your 
father's  memory,  next  to  my  wife's,  is  about 
the  tenderest  one  that  I  cherish.  It  would  be 
entirely  agreeable  to  me,  then,  to  have  you 
for  a  son-in-law,  and  if  you  can  think  of 
any  possible  way  to  bring  it  about,  why,  go 
ahead." 

"Thank  you  a  thousand  times,  Major! 
That  clears  away  some  dark  clouds.  But  as 
for  the  rest — as  to  any  plan —  Oh,  well,  of 
course  we  can't  at  this  moment  make  any. 
My  fate  must  eventually  be  in  the  girl's 
hands,  however  it  shall  please  God  to  return 
her  to  us.  I  shall  do  my  best  to  have  pa- 
tience." 

In  spite  of  him,  the  strained  look  showed 
again  in  his  face.  He  glanced  at  his  watch. 

308 


//  Not  Edith—? 


"It  is  nearly  breakfast  time.  I  suppose 
we  had  better  be  going.  I  am  not  hungry, 
for  my  part,  but  you  can't  run  a  stomach  with- 
out food." 

"That 's  so.    Well,  we  will  go  back." 

They  started,  but  there  was  no  need  of 
haste,  and  the  Major  had  some  questions  to 
ask.  Before  he  was  through  he  understood 
all  of  what  he  termed  Hamil's  little  plot. 

"Huh!"  he  grunted  at  the  close.  "So 
Baum  and  Miss  Winrose  know?  I  am  a 
kind  of  tail-ender  in  the  business.  Never 
mind,  if  there  is  anything  more  doing  I  shall 
certainly  be  in  on  it.  How  surprised  Bess 
will  be!  I  can  tell  her,  of  course?" 

"Certainly." 

"And  the  doctor,  if  you  don't  mind?  As 
the  whole  thing  is  pretty  closely  under  his 
eye,  and  as  your  interest  in  the  case  might 
puzzle  him — " 

"Pardon  me.  He  already  knows.  I  will 
tell  you  how  it  came  about." 

By  the  time  he  was  through  they  had 
reached  the  house. 

309 


CHAPTER  XXII 

THE  SILENT  COMBAT 

AT  breakfast  they  learned  that  Baum 
had  received  a  business  letter  that 
called  him  home. 

"Even  a  non-commercial  man  can't  always 
get  rid  of  such  things,"  he  sighed. 

Rather  strangely,  too,  Miss  Winrose  was 
also  called  home.  She  was  blue  about  it  too, 
it  seemed;  or,  at  least,  she  was  grave  about 
something.  In  fact,  they  both  went  that 
same  afternoon. 

Quesencourt,  however,  was  of  entirely  dif- 
ferent intentions,  for  he  made  it  plain  that 
his  present  anxiety,  no  matter  what  came  up, 
would  hold  him  where  he  was. 

Late  that  afternoon  the  doctor  came  again. 
He  found  the  patient  this  time  a  bit  restless, 
and  as  this  might  indicate  some  change  he  de- 
cided to  remain  for  the  night. 

310 


The  Silent  Combat 


Bess  appeared  just  after  supper,  having 
been  driven  out  by  the  doctor,  who  had  or- 
dered her  to  take  a  brisk  walk.  She  was  just 
starting  when  she  met  Hamil. 

"How  is  she  now,  Bess?"  he  asked  anx- 
iously. 

"Still  somewhat  restless,  and  her  temper- 
ature is  rising.  It  has  been  low  all  along. 
The  doctor  and  the  nurse  are  watching  every 
sign.  I  wanted  to  stay,  but  Dr.  Carlisle  said 
that  I  was  fagged,  and  drove  me  out.  I  am 
going  for  a  short  walk,  but  I  shan't  be  gone 
long." 

"I  will  stay  here  and  wait  for  news." 

"I  wish  I  might.  But  oh,  I  have  n't  said 
anything,  have  I,  about  the  other  news? 
When  papa  told  me  I  was  dumfounded. 
But  I  am  awfully  glad,  Mr.  Hamil,  that  you 
are  Mr.  Hamil.  Papa  knows  all  about  you, 
and  your  family,  so  that  hereafter  you  can't 
be  in  the  least  like  a  stranger." 

She  offered  him  her  hand,  which  he  took, 
and  for  an  instant  held.  "Bessie,  tell  me  one 
thing.  You  know  how  I  feel  towards  your 


The  Girl  With   Two  Selves 


sister.  Do  you  think  I  have  any  show? 
While  she  was  herself,  this  last  time,  did  she 
speak  of  me?  What  did  she  say?  I  don't 
want  you  to  break  any  confidences,  but  if 
there  is  anything  you  can  properly  say  I  beg 
of  you  to  say  it.  You  can  guess  how  I  feel." 

"Why,  Mr.  Hamil,"  she  said  sympathetic- 
ally, "I  should  be  glad  to  give  you  any  good 
news  if  I  could.  The  fact  is,  though,  I  don't 
know  how  she  feels.  When  she  is  her  natural 
self  she  never  talks  to  me  about  such  matters. 
Yes,  and  the  truth  is  she  won't  let  me  quiz  her. 
She  is  very  reserved.  But  I  will  say  this 
much :  I  know  she  likes  you,  and  thinks  more 
of  you  than  she  did  at  first." 

"Thank  you  for  that." 

She  went  on  her  way,  and  he  fell  back  on 
his  old  trick  of  pacing  up  and  down  the  walk. 

No  important  news  came  down  that  night. 
The  patient  continued  to  a  certain  extent  rest- 
less, but  not  sufficiently  so  to  indicate  that  she 
was  about  to  break  the  trance.  Hamil  man- 
aged to  get  some  breakfast,  and  after  that 
wandered  into  the  office.  Nobody  else  was 

312 


The  Silent  Combat 


there.  Suddenly  there  was  a  whisking  step  in 
the  hall,  and  Bess  darted  in.  She  was  pale 
and  her  eyes  were  shining. 

Hamil  felt  a  weakness  in  the  legs,  but  he 
managed  to  stand  outwardly  firm. 

"Oh,  Mr.  Hamil!  She's  awake!"  ex- 
claimed the  girl  in  breathless  excitement. 

"Thank  God!" 

"And  she  is  n't  so  dreadfully  weak.  The 
doctor  is  wonderfully  encouraged." 

"Excellent!     Splendid!" 

"Is  n't  it?  In  a  few  days  more,  if  she  con- 
tinues to  do  so  well,  she  can  come  down 
here  again." 

Hamil  felt  the  need  of  a  drink  of  water. 
As  he  faced  Bess  again,  the  full  light  hap- 
pened to  strike  on  his  face.  At  sight  of  it  she 
uttered  a  cry. 

"Why,  Mr.  Hamil!  how  haggard  you  look! 
At  this  moment  you  actually  look  worse  than 
she  does !  You  must  rest." 

"Thank  you,  but  I  am  afraid  I  can't  just 
now.  Yes,  I  am  a  bit  fagged." 

"Sit  down,    iVVe  can  talk  that  way." 

313 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


"Oh,  I  am  not  so  far  gone  as  that." 

But  he  dropped  into  the  chair  that  she 
thrust  toward  him.  When  she  had  taken  an- 
other she  said: 

"Papa  felt  so  happy  that  he  cried,  and  of 
course  I  did  too.  That's  what  makes  my 
eyes  and  nose  so  red.  Yes,  and  Mrs.  Gurney 
sniffled,  and  Mr.  Quesencourt — " 

"Mr.  Quesencourt?" 

"Yes,  I  met  him  as  I  came  down  the  stairs." 

"Excuse  me.     Go  on." 

"He  slapped  the  post  of  the  banister  as  if 
he  would  break  it." 

Hamil  sat  back  in  his  chair,  and  put  his 
hand  to  his  chin.  He  had  sobered  again,  in 
spite  of  the  news. 

"Bess,  I  must  ask  a  question.  I  simply 
must.  Is  she  herself,  or — or  is  she  the — the 
other?" 

He  bent  forward.  His  eyes  were  shining, 
and  there  was  a  hectic  spot  in  each  cheek. 

Bessie,  at  first  lighting  up  joyfully,  sobered, 
and  her  look  strayed  from  his.  She  hesitated. 

"I  can  guess,"  he  whispered. 


The  Silent  Combat 


"She"— the  girl  faltered— "is  herself." 

He  drew  a  long  breath.  His  color  fled, 
leaving  the  former  dull  pallor. 

"Why,  Bessie,"  he  said,  and  he  looked  at 
her  unwaveringly  and  faintly  smiled,  "of 
course  we  thank  God  for  that." 

She  sighed  with  relief.  At  least,  he  was 
putting  down  whatever  disappointment  he 
felt. 

"Oh,  indeed,  we  do  thank  God.  And  the 
best  of  it  is — "  She  hesitated. 

"The  best  of  it  is  what?" 

"That  the  doctor  thinks  she  may  stay  so. 
You  see,  this  time  she  did  n't  lose  herself  very 
long.  And  even  while  she  was  so  she  knew 
things  in  a  different  way  from  what  she  had 
before.  You  noticed  and  spoke  of  it.  She 
recalled  people  whom,  in  her  former  spells, 
she  had  utterly  forgotten." 

"Yes,  that  is  so." 

The  tears  suddenly  came  into  the  girl's 
eyes. 

"You  are  a  brave  man,  Mr,  Hamil,  and  I 
shall  always  thoroughly  respect  you.  I  un- 

315 


The  Girl  With   Two  Selves 


derstand  your  disappointment.  You  thought, 
like  some  of  the  rest  of  us,  that  this  might 
prove  the  last  change,  and  if  it  turned  out  so, 
that  she  should  be  permanently  Edith,  then 
at  least  nobody  but  you  could  have  her.  But 
after  all,  that  could  n't  have  come  out  in 
any  satisfactory  way.  Papa  says  that  she 
could  n't  have  contracted  a  legal  marriage, 
and  that,  as  she  thought  she  was  already  your 
wife,  it  would  have  been  hard  even  to  induce 
her  to  go  through  the  ceremony.  Yes,  Mr. 
Hamil,  that  was  a  dream.  You  must  see  it  so 


now." 


"Why,  Bess,"  he  said  gently,  and  with'  a 
look  that  she  always  afterwards  remembered, 
"you  don't  quite  understand.  Allowing  that 
her  condition  would  not  have  permitted  a  le- 
gal marriage,  then  I  should  have  been  con- 
tent to  stay  simply  the  nurse.  She  would 
have  needed  me,  and  I  should  have  been  glad 
to  be  needed.  You  did  n't  think  of  that,  did 
you?  Well,  it  seems  to  be  all  over,  now." 

She  faltered  before  the  strange,  half-smil- 
ing look  with  which  he  said  this.  His  mean- 

316 


The  Silent  Combat 


ing,  too,  with  the  surprise  that  it  brought, 
confused,  and  almost  confounded  her. 

"Oh,  Mr.  Hamil!"  she  murmured  at  last, 
"that  is  wonderful!  It  is  like  the  ancient 
tales  of  chivalry,  that  I  thought  never  could 
be  true.  And  I  wish — yes,  I  do — that  Car- 
men could  learn  to  love  you.  While  she  is  n't 
Edith,  yet  in  a  sense  she  is,  and  it  seems  as  if 
after  a  while  it  would  be  all  one  to  you.  I 
suppose  I  am  saying  too  much,  but  I  do  pity 
you.  Oh,  I  wish  I  could  give  you  some  real 
encouragement,  but  as  everything  stands  I 
can't.  I  don't  care  about  Mr.  Quesencourt, 
though  he  is  all  right,  but  he  is  no  such  man 
as  you." 

"Thank  you,  Bess,  for  such  kind  words, 
and  such  a  championship,"  he  said  gratefully. 
"I  can  see  that  my  chance  now  is  small,  but  it 
is  not  my  way  to  give  up  till  the  last  hope  is 
gone,  and  so  for  a  while  I  shall  stay.  Yes, 
for  it  will  not  do  to  let  Mr.  Quesencourt  out- 
last me,  even  though  his  chance  now  does 
seem  better  than  mine." 

He  threw  back  his  head,  and  with  the  dis- 
317 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


appointment  now  buried  out  of  her  sight,  he 
smiled  heroically. 

Steps  came  along  the  hall,  and  the  nurse 
looked  in. 

"Oh,  Miss  McAllister,  if  you  don't  take 
that  walk  the  doctor  will  scold." 

"I  know  it,  and  I  must  go.  Good-by  for 
the  present,  Mr.  Hamil.  I  wish  you  every 
bit  of  luck  in  that  matter  that  is  possible." 

"Thank  you,  Miss  Bessie." 

This  was  all  they  cared  to  say  before  the 
nurse,  and  Bessie  went  out  to  begin  her  walk. 
Hamil  sat  in  the  chair  for  half  an  hour.  He 
almost  dozed  once,  but  shot  wide  awake 
again.  Finally  he  started  up.  He  rang  a 
bell  by  the  desk,  and  Henry  soon  came  in. 

"I  have  decided  to  go  for  a  few  days  to  Bar 
Harbor.  I  am  not  feeling  very  well,  and  I 
think  that  perhaps  the  change  will  do  me 
good.  What  I  want  to  do  is  to  slip  away 
quietly,  and  not  disturb  anybody.  Do  you 
suppose  that  I  could  have  the  use  of  the 
launch,  to  carry  me?" 

"Certainly,    Mr.    Hamil.     Candley,    that 

318 


The  Silent  Combat 


runs  the  launch,  will  take  you.  Just  tell  him 
that  it  is  urgent.  He  knows  who  you  are,  as 
we  all  do  now,  and  he  won't  refuse." 

"Thank  you.  Your  information  is  worth 
this  dollar.  I  '11  slip  up  to  my  room,  and  get 
ready." 

"Can't  I  help  you?" 

"No,  thank  you;  or  not  unless  it  is  to  give 
the  old  man  the  word  to  have  the  launch 
ready." 

"I  '11  do  it.  I  hope  you  are  coming  back 
soon,  sir." 

"Oh,  yes.  I  am  merely  running  over  to  see 
whether  I  can't  break  up  a  little  nervous 
touch." 

Henry  started  on  the  errand,  and  Hamil 
went  to  his  room. 

He  felt  weak,  now,  and  it  took  him  fully 
twenty  minutes  to  put  together  the  few  things 
he  meant  to  take.  When  he  had  at  last  done 
it,  he  took  his  small  suit-case  and  started  to 
leave  the  room.  As  he  was  about  to  open  the 
door  a  knock  sounded  upon  it. 

He  opened  it.    To  his  surprise,  Bess  was 

319 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


there.  She  looked  flustered,  and  in  some  sort 
of  perplexity. 

"Oh,  Mr.  Hamil,  you  are  not  going  away 
just  now?" 

"Oh,  only  for  a  few  days,  to  Bar  Harbor. 
I  thought  I  could  get  rid  of  my  little  spell  of 
nerves  there.  No,  I  am  going  to  do  as  I  told 
you,  and  cling  to  the  last  plank  of  the  ship." 

"Oh,  I  am  so  glad!  Lucy  overheard 
you  talking  with  Henry,  and  tell  him  that 
you  were  going  away.  She  came  upstairs, 
where  I  was  with  Carmen,  and  sputtered  it 
out.  She  is  the  greatest  darky  for  news  that 
ever  was.  Well,  and  Carmen  spoke  up,  and 
said  you  must  n't  go.  She  began  to  get  ex- 
cited, and  the  doctor  sent  me  to  see  you.  I 
will  tell  her  that  it  is  all  right,  and  that  you 
are  only  going  for  a  few  days.  You  know  she 
is  weak,  and  it  does  n't  take  much  to  stir  her 
up." 

"Tell  her — tell  her  at  once.  And  give  her 
my  congratulations  on  her  recovery." 

"I  will.     Good-by  for  a  little  while,  then." 

She  cordially  gave  him  her  hand,  and  he 
320 


The  Silent  Combat 


shook  it  with  something  like  his  old  unthink- 
ing strength. 

"Good-by,  my  best  friend  at  court." 

But  he  had  hardly  followed  her  a  step  into 
the  hall  when  the  doctor  came  along  the  pas- 
sage. 

"Good  morning,  Mr.  Hamil.  I  came  to 
say  that  you  are  wanted.  Miss  McAllister 
wishes  to  speak  with  you." 

Hamil  was  shocked  from  his  impassivity. 

"To  speak  with  me!  With  me?"  he  re- 
peated. 

He  stared  blankly  from  the  doctor  to  Bess, 
as  if  he  did  not  understand. 

"Did  she  send  for  him?"  Bess  asked  won- 
deringly.  "Oh !  she  is  n't  wrong  in  her  head, 
is  she?" 

The  laugh  that  met  this  slip  broke  the  ten- 
sion. 

"Not  at  all,"  Dr.  Carlisle  assured  her. 
"No.  She  fretted  after  you  went,  and  finally 
broke  out  that  she  wanted  to  see  Mr.  Dana. 
I  tried  to  get  her  out  of  the  notion,  for  I 
thought  it  would  be  best  to  keep  her  for  the 
21  321 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


present  entirely  quiet;  but  she  would  n't  have 
it  that  way.  She  began  to  get  excited,  and 
as  that  would  n't  answer,  I  gave  in.  I  told 
her  that  she  could  see  him  just  a  few  min- 


utes." 


Hamil's  pale  cheeks  had  begun  to  glow. 
He  put  down  the  suit-case. 

"All  right.     I  will  see  her  the  few  min- 


utes." 


"She  does  n't  know  yet  that  you  are  Hamil," 
the  doctor  stopped  to  say,  "so  we  will  speak  of 
you  and  to  you  as  'Dana.'  Come,  Bessie,  you 
and  I  are  not  in  this  secret,  but  I  suppose  we 
can  go  along." 

'••'   "It  is  a  mystery,  jusf  the  same!"  the  girl 
Declared. 

Hamil  said  nothing.  He  and  Bess  fol- 
lowed the  doctor  along  the  passage,  and  the 
'doctor  paused  at  the  sick-room  door.  "Now, 
quietly,  everybody!"  he  enjoined  under  his 
breath. 

The  door  was  slightly  ajar.  He  pushed  it 
open,  and  led  the  way  in. 


322 


THE  room  was  not  darkened,  but  the 
shades  on  the  sunshiny  eastern  side 
were  partly  drawn.  Hamil's  first 
glance  darted  towards  the  bed;  but  she  was 
not  there.  She  was  sitting  in  an  easy-chair, 
her  head  bolstered,  and  a  hassock  under  her 
feet.  She  wore  a  blue  dressing-gown,  and  her 
great  wealth  of  shimmering  hair  was  smoothed 
back;  it  hung  across  one  shoulder  in  a  braid, 
the  end  of  which  rested  upon  her  lap.  Bess 
had  told  him  that  she  was  but  little  changed 
in  looks,  and  he  found  this  true  even  beyond 
what  he  could  have  supposed.  She  looked 
merely  a  trifle  wan.  Perhaps  from  the  ex- 
citement her  cheeks  were  faintly  flushed. 
However,  to  him,  the  vision  was  the  most 
beautiful  in  all  the  world. 

He  stood  lumpishly  for  a  moment,  and  for 
323 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


once  in  his  life,  at  least,  looked  clumsy  and 
awkward. 

"Mr.  Dana!" 

She  was  smiling,  and  as  he  at  last  pulled 
himself  together  and  approached  her,  she  put 
out  her  hand. 

"Well,  Miss  McAllister,"  mustering  a 
hearty  tone,  he  said,  "it  is  fine  to  see  you  pick- 
ing up  like  this!" 

He  took  the  extended  hand  as  if  it  were 
made  of  glass  and  might  break.  Neverthe- 
less, the  hand  was  fairly  warm,  while  his  own 
was  cold. 

She  looked  up  searchingly  and  anxiously 
into  his  face. 

"Why,  Mr.  Dana,  what 's  the  matter?  You 
look  fairly  haggard,  and  your  hand  is  cold! 
I  believe  you  look  sicker  than  I  do." 

"Oh,  that  is  n't  saying  very  much,"  he 
laughed  lightly.  "It  is  pretty  near  an  exag- 
geration to  say  you  look  sick  at  all." 

"But  you  do  look  sick.  Bessie,  you  did  n't 
tell  me  that  Mr.  Dana  was  n't  well,"  she  re- 

324 


Victory! 

preached  her  sister  with  a  note  of  regret 
and  criticism. 

"He  did  n't  complain,  and  I  thought  I 
would  n't  for  him,"  Bess  evaded.  "Besides, 
he  was  going  away  for  a  brief  recruiting  spell. 
He  would  have  been  started  by  this  time  if 
you  had  n't  stopped  him." 

"I  had  reasons  for  wishing  to  see  him." 
She  looked  at  the  doctor.  "I  am  all  right, 
and  I  want  to  have  a  few  words  privately  with 
Mr.  Dana." 

There  was  determination  in  her  look,  and 
the  doctor,  scarcely  hesitating,  nodded.  He 
was  too  well-bred  to  show  surprise  at  the  re- 
quest itself.  Bessie,  however,  looked  a  shade 
wild  and  was  slower  in  starting.  The  nurse, 
seeing  that  the  request  was  to  be  granted,  had 
already  slipped  out. 

They  were  in  the  hall  at  last,  and  the  door 
had  been  drawn  to  its  former  position. 

"Please  shut  the  door  tight,"  Carmen  re- 
quested Hamil.  "They  won't  listen;  but  I 
want  to  be  able  to  speak  freely/' 

325 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


Unable  to  keep  the  surprise  wholly  out  of 
his  looks,  he  obeyed  and  came  back. 

"I  see  that  you  are  puzzled,"  she  began, 
"and  no  wonder.  Have  a  very  small  amount 
of  patience,  and  you  shall  understand.  .Will 
you  please  bring  that  chair  this  way?" 

He  took  the  chair  pointed  out,  and  brought 
it  to  where  he  had  been  standing. 

"That  is  n't  quite  close  enough.  A  little 
nearer.  That  will  do." 

He  had  brought  it  quite  close  to  her. 

"Now  sit  down." 

He  started.  Something  in  her  way,  or  in 
the  tone,  had  a  tingling  suggestion.  He  took 
the  chair. 

"Jack,  in  the  first  place,  tell  me — aren't 
you  looking  like  this  on  my  account? 
Have  n't  you  been  worrying?" 

He  straightened  back  in  the  chair  so  sud- 
denly that  he  almost  upset  it.  What  did  she 
mean  by  using  his  name  like  that?  And  the 
voice  itself,  in  some  subtle  shading  of  the 
tones,  was  again  a  different  voice,  one  that 
sounded  natural  with  his  name. 

326 


Victory! 

She  smiled  in  his  staring  face. 

"You  are  fond  of  Shakespeare.  Where 
gottest  thou  that  goose  look?'  But  you 
have  n't  answered  my  question." 

He  set  his  lips,  leaned  forward,  and  looked 
deliberately  in  her  face. 

"You  are  not  Edith— Oh,  God,  no!  They 
did  n't  deceive  me  about  that.  You  are  not 
looking  at  me  with  Edith's  eyes,  and  your 
mouth — but  then  why  did  you  speak  to  me  as 
you  did?  Why  did  you  call  me  'Jack'? 
And  something  in  your  tone  reminded  me  of 
her.  Don't  play  with  me !  Don't  keep  it  up ! 
Tell  me  just  what  you  mean.  You  can't  be 
Edith — can  you?" 

But  a  light  danced  into  her  eyes  that  made 
him  gasp.  He  had  never  seen  that  light  in 
Carmen's  eyes.  He  sprang  up. 

"But  you  are,  you  are  Edith!  Either  that 
or  I  am  going  stark  mad!  Be  quick!  Tell 
me!  Now  your  look  is  different  again!  You 
are  the  other,  or  has — something  turned  my 
brain?" 

But  as  he  almost  staggered  backward  she 
327 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


gripped  the  arms  of  her  chair,  and  slowly 
rose. 

"I  am  good  for  this  much.  Now  I  am 
nearer.  Jack,  look  just  once  more.  Tell  me 
what  you  see.  I  am  not  trying  to  torture  you. 
I  merely  want  to  know  something  for  myself. 
I  have  been  hiding  it  from  the  others.  Jack,  I 
want  you  to  tell  me  who  I  am." 

Slowly,  and  yet  not  so,  considering  the 
stress  and  overwhelming  wonderment  of  it  all, 
he  took  her  wrists,  and  looked  again  in  her 
face.  She  flashed  the  light  into  her  eyes. 

"Now  what  am  I?" 

"You  are  Edith!     God  bless  you,  yes!" 

"And  now?" 

She  looked  at  him  with  calm  intentness. 

His  enthusiasm  died,  and  he  seemed  almost 
afraid. 

"Now  you  are  the  other." 

"Once  more — which  one?" 

Her  lips  curved  faintly  in  a  smile. 

"Still  the  other." 

"But  if  I  let  the  smile  go  free,  and  curb  in 
my  chin  a  bit,  like  this?" 

328 


Victory! 

"Edith  again!  Bless  the  merciful  God 
that  suffers  this  miracle!" 

She  tottered,  but  by  an  effort,  sank  slowly 
back  into  her  chair. 

"I  am  not  so  very  strong,  after  all.  Wait  a 
moment."  She  leaned  her  head  back,  and 
closed  her  eyes. 

He  stood  motionless,  his  breath  coming 
long,  his  eyes  hollow  yet  bright  with  joy  be- 
ginning to  dawn  in  them. 

A  small  clock  on  the  mantel  made  itself 
heard.  After  a  few  seconds  she  opened  her 
eyes. 

"Now,  Jack,  listen.  I  don't  fully  under- 
stand it,  though  what  you  have  done  has 
helped  me.  But  what  I  am  sure  of  is  that  I 
am  not  just  as  I  was.  Edith  seems  to  be  gone, 
and  yet  I  feel  that  she  is  not.  I  am  at  this 
moment  Carmen  McAllister,  and  I  know 
perfectly  what  I  am  saying,  but  nevertheless, 
I  am  sure  that  I  am  not  exactly  the  same  that 
Carmen  McAllister  was.  I  possess  some- 
thing— something  beautiful,  and  good — that 
the  old  Carmen  never  had." 

329 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


He  looked  at  her  with  returning,  almost 
bewildering  perplexity. 

"You  see,  Jack,  Edith  has  left  behind  some 
things  that  were  hers.  Among  others  is  a  dif- 
ferent feeling  for  you  from  what  Carmen  Mc- 
Allister had.  To  be  sure,  Carmen  was  be- 
ginning to — well,  no  matter.  The  feeling 
that  I  mean  is — it  is  only  right  and  just  that 
you  should  know — but  of  course  you  do  know. 
So  now — " 

But  he  was  on  his  knees,  her  hands  in  his, 
and  his  lips  going  down  tremblingly  to  them. 

"Dear  old  Jack!"  she  said  under  her  breath. 
Her  eyes  grew  misty,  and  she  gently  with- 
drew one  hand,  and  placed  it  on  his  head. 

The  little  clock  asserted  itself  again. 
Then  he  slowly  rose,  and  stood  looking  down 
on  her. 

"I  want  to  make  this  seem  real,  but  I  can't 
unless  I  see  you." 

"Not  even  when  you  kiss  my  hands?" 

"They  might  be  some  other  hands." 

"What!  Would  you  kiss  another  girl's 
hands?" 

330 


Victory! 

"Impossible!  Yours  are  the  first  I  ever 
kissed,  and  they  are  going  to  be  the  last." 

"If  only  you  meant  that!" 

"You  know  I  do.  Yes,  God  bless  you! 
Yours  are  the  first  hands,  and  Edith's  were 
the  first  lips." 

"You  mean,  since  you  were  a  grown  man?" 

"Yes." 

"How  wonderful!" 

"But  true." 

"And  this  great,  mighty  Jack  Dana  has 
saved  all  of  himself  for  me?  Oh,  and  Jack, 
you  must  answer  my  question.  What  makes 
you  look  so  badly?  Was  it  really  worrying 
about  me?" 

"Not  wholly.  Part  of  it  was  worrying 
about  myself." 

"Oh!" 

"Because  I  feared  I  had  lost  you." 

"Was  that  it?  How  lovely!  I  mean,  I 
am  sorry,  but  the  idea  is  lovely." 

"Darling,"  he  broke  out,  unable  to  sustain 
himself  longer,  "this  is  so  much  like  heaven 
that  it  does  n't  seem  as  if  I  could  stand  it!  I 


The  Girl  With  Two  Selves 


don't  believe  I  can  unless  I  have  Edith  back 
for  just  one  instant.  She  used  to  kiss  me,  and 
let  me  kiss  her." 

He  bent  over  her.  "I  will  be  very  gentle, 
and  you  can  keep  quiet,  and  not  exert  your- 
self at  all." 

But  she  interposed  her  hand. 

"I  am  not  Edith,  I  am  Carmen." 

"Carmen,  then.     Please  don't  be— 

"But  we  are  not  engaged.  Please  remem- 
ber that,  Mr.  Dana." 

"Then  for  heaven's  sake  let  us  be!  Only 
my  name  is  n't  Dana.  Won't  you  be  engaged 
to  Jack  Dana  Hamil?" 

"What?  Won't  I  be  engaged  to  who — I 
mean  whom?" 

"Jack  Dana  Hamil.  Gad!  now  I  think  of 
it,  you  have  n't  got  a  monopoly  of  doubles. 
Why,  for  that  matter,  I  have  a  triple.  You 
know  you  tacked  on  'Beauchamp.' ' 

"Jack,  what  do  you  mean?  Tell  me,  now, 
or  you  never  shall  kiss  me!" 

"I  shan't?  I  'd  kill  a  man  and  eat  him  be- 
fore I'd  stand  that  prohibition!  Well,  then 

332 


Victory! 

— but  say — will  you  let  me  kiss  you  after  I 
tell?" 

"I  don't  know.  It  depends.  Oh,  Jack, 
tell  me  truly,  are  you  fooling?" 

"No.    Are  you?    Will  you  marry  me?" 

He  bent  lower,  and  now  a  shade  of  real 
concern  came  into  his  face. 

"I  am  in  desperate  earnest,  Carmen,  and 
you  know  that.  You  don't  mean  to  play 
lightly  now,  do  you?  You  wouldn't  fool 
me?" 

She  sobered  too,  an'd  for  one  instant  was 
silent.  Then  she  said,  bending  her  head  a 
little  lower: 

"No,  Jack,  I  never  thought  of  fooling  you. 
Only  you  know  a  girl  does  n't  want  to  surren- 
der too  easily.  But  I  love  you,  and  I  will 
marry  you,  whatever  your  name  is." 

She  raised  her  face.  He  leaned  down,  and 
his  lips  descended  upon  hers. 

They  were  in  no  hurry  to  separate,  either; 
in  fact,  they  lingered  till  a  knock  came  at  the 
door.  As  Hamil  raised  his  head,  Dr.  Car- 
lisle called  out: 

333 


The  Girl  With  TIVO  Selves 


"You  must  cut  your  business  short;  we  can't 
afford  to  take  chances." 

"All  right,"  Hamil  answered,  frowning. 
"We  want  just  a  minute  more." 

"Among  other  things,"  she  laughed,  but 
looked  at  him  curiously,  "I  should  like  to  be 
sure  of  the  name  of  the  man  I  am  engaged 
to.  Is  it  honestly  and  truly  Hamil?" 

"It  is." 

"Why,  are  you  one  of  the  Newark  Hamils? 
One  was  father's  particular  friend." 

"That  was  my  father." 

"Gracious!  And  how  in  the  world  Hid  it 
happen  that  you  gave  that  other  name? 
What  did  you  do  it  for?" 

"I  thought  it  would  make  it  easier  to  get 
the  place.  I  will  explain  more  fully  about  it 
later,  but  I  will  say  now  that  from  the  first  I 
longed  after  it." 

"To  look  after  a  crazy  girl?" 

"Please  don't  say  that  I  I  never  thought 
it." 

"Oh,  well,  then,  we  will  call  her  your 
pearl." 

334 


Victory! 

"That  is  decidedly  better." 

"But  you  Ve  lost  her  now.  The  double 
pearl  itself  has  gone." 

"Oh,  no,  dear." 

"Then  what?" 

"The  two  have  become  one — one  priceless 
pearl." 


THE  END 


335 


A     000  125 2 


